The Other Sasuke
by Arkh Cthuul
Summary: What would it be like if Sasuke wasn t the hateful, revenge-driven and arrogant Snob he is?   We all are about to find out, following Kakashi finding his Star Pupil sleeping on the Memorial Stone.  Hilarity ensues, as well as ...  unexpected developements
1. Prologue

**Prologue: **

Sasuke lay with his back on the Memorial Stone, sleeping. Then his eyes opened, his gaze lazily fixed on the drifting clouds above him, the playing of shadows and light caused by them, his eyes oddly relaxed.

„Hn, what a nice day..." Was his first thought. Quickly followed by „Why do I feel so tired, and whats the kinda hard thing I am lying on?" He slowly got up and looked around. Weak wind played with the grass, some leaves sailed on higher windstreams...overall a peaceful day.

That is, until Kakashi appeared in a swirl of leaves, his one visible eye taking in the scowl-less face of Sasuke Uchiha, leaning against the Monument where so many of his Clanmembers names where engraved and looking …. relaxed? Dreamy? Something was very wrong with this picture.

"Sasuke, what are you doing here? Why aren`t you at Training Ground 5? Team 7 was supposed to meet there 1 hour ago (which meant that Kakashi himself had been extremely early seeing he already had noticed Sasukes absence, damn, he was early once and already he regretted it)."

"Oh, we were? Hn, seems I somehow forgot..." the blackhaired teenager trailed off, a slight frown on his brow. It wasnt his way to "forget" such things. And now that he thought about it, he couldn`t for his life remember that today there was any team training set up at all!

He looked around more alert, and sighed. "Well, I`m not tied up, or painted orange or somesuch, so I`m not here because of Naruto playing a prank again."

"I see..." answered Kakashi with a slightly wondering tone as there was no venom in the boys voice. „And has Naruto been playing pranks like that lately?"

„No, he mostly threatens "to get me next time", but I never fall for his attempts. Last time though he threatened to get Itachi to help..." Sasuke smiled slightly at that.

Kakashis Eye narrowed, Sasuke noticed. "He would get _who_ to help?" he asked with a voice somewhere betweeen incredelous and alarmed.

"Itachi? My older brother? The jounin? Long black hair, overtly perfect in everything he does, small army of fangirls?"

Kakshi frowned. "Sasuke, how old are you?" Sasuke frowned now as well, What was his Sensei getting at? "12, I`ll be 13 in 2 months, why?"

"Soo..." Kakashi answered in a very calm and precise tone, „You are NOT suffering from amnesia and thinking that you`re 8?" It seemed as if the white haired Jounin would have preferred it that way, which seemed...strange to say the least, to Sasuke. He decided to say so. "Uh, Sensei, I dont really get what you`re getting at, is something wrong?"

"What happened when youw ere 8?" Kakashi asked, again with that overtly patient and very precise tone of voice.

„Naruto fell out of a tree and my Sharingan activated, due to the danger of being squashed by a human orange I assume." He smiled slightly at the memory.

"...What?" Was the rather alarmed sounding reaction of the otherwise lackluster Ninja.

"Come on now, Sensei, you were there about five seconds after that. You know what happened. You weren't running around screaming your head off like I was..." The smile vanished. The headache he had suffered after that had been …. intense to say the least. Especially right behind his eyes.

Kakashi stared at his student, then spoke with a very level voice.  
>"Sasuke, I mean the massacre. I don't remember any instance of Naruto falling from a tree, at least, not where you were ever involved. I also had no knowledge you had awakened your Sharingan."<br>Sasuke stared at his Sensei.  
>"...Sensei, how can you not remember it? Uncle Obito laughed so hard his glass eye fell out."<br>Kakashi froze. "...Uncle who?" His voice was pained and very quiet now.  
>Sasuke meanwhile caught up to what Kakashi had said. "Hey, wait, what massacre? And you were training me with your own Sharingan yesterday!"<br>The pair stared at each other, wide-eyed and silently.

"Sasuke... I think we're going to have to do a lot of explaining here, but first I think we might have to go and see the Hokage."  
>"Uh, why?"<br>"I have a question of my own to answer that one, 'Sasuke'. How did you know I had a Sharingan?" Kakashi asked.  
>He had hoped that the suspected spy disguised as his student would panic at this, if only to allow Kakashi a good reason to knock him out. He had not expected the next words.<br>"The whole clan knows Obito gave his left eye to you when you had yours cut out and his optic nerves were damaged when you two were tortured... It was given as repayment for saving his life."  
>Kakashi blinked in surprise.<br>"Obito was crushed to death. His name is on the stone behind you."  
>Sasuke blinked, turned around, and saw the name. His eyes widened further.<br>"...But he told me at lunch yesterday that he would be taking his own team out on a C-Rank tomorrow. That doesn't make any sense. And... That person isn't dead. Neither is he... "  
>He kept reading, and then turned pale as he must have had reached a certain spot with many identical last names. Sasuke suddenly growled, spinning around with a Kunai in his hands. Kakashi did not draw his own, but remained wary as he spotted that his student indeed did have the Sharingan after all. The teenager mada a Kai sign. And then proceeded to look very, very worried.<br>"...This isn't a Genjutsu, is it? What's going on?"  
>"Sasuke, what name did you see there that alarmed you?" Kakashi inquired.<br>"Everyone! The whole clan except for me and Itachi!"  
>Kakashi nodded silently.<br>"That seems right. Itachi did kill the whole clan five years ago..." Sasuke blinked, said one word:"...What?" And then he fainted.

"...Maybe I should have broken that one a little more gently." Kakashi muttered, picking up the suspicious Sasuke and heading for the Hokage's tower.

Still, at least he hadn't had to knock him out by himself, on the off chance that he _was _Sasuke.

Whatever the truth behind this was, be it an amnesiac Sasuke, a Spy transformed by an unknown Kinjutsu or an even weirder explanation, he was sure that the Sandaime (and his ….. ressources) would be able to get behind it. So he quickly made his way to the Hokage Tower, his uncharacteristically happy (and right now unconcious) pupil over his shoulder.

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><p><strong>Authors Note: <strong> The Idea and Inspiration to this Story should be credited to a „short" I read on Deviantart.

More precisely most of this prologue is based on LZ0291`s Story there. Thank you for inspiring me.

**AN2:**

This is supposed to be a story with a happy (though still rather … prodigious) and not in the slightest „Single Minded Avenger on a Power Trip" Sasuke.

It will (sometimes loosely sometimes closely) follow the Canon Events starting with the Wave Arc, but some AU-ness will certainly make an appearance later on.

Why does Sasuke have other memories, you ask? Well, it could be many things, you should probably continue reading if you want to find out...;)

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><p>Please review and tell me what you think of the Idea.<p> 


	2. Awakening

Sasuke slowly climbed out of the dark depths of shock-induced unconsciousness. He felt tired, and his wrists ached. And it seemed like they were somehow tied up...his ankles too... What the hell had happened? He decided to find out and slowly opened his eyes.

Just to be treated to the sight of one Morino Ibiki, the Master Torturers face hovering not 5 inches above his and smiling a wickedly wide smile.

He decided that to pass out again seemed like a good idea. No scratch that, THE BEST idea.

And like any good Uchiha once he had determined the prudent thing to do he immediately took action …. and passed out.

* * *

><p>Kakashi had been pacing up and down the corridor of the Hokages Office since he had been called to come here roughly 30 Minutes ago. That was what he deserved for being punctual, he guessed, but after all, the fate of his Star Pupil was at stake here. He quickly shut down that train of thought, else he become as anxious as Sakura and Naruto had been when he had told them that something was wrong with Sasuke (he had to do that, as much as it pained him to openly give out information, as they had realized Sasuke was missing even before he did) and that he would inform them as soon as he knew more. If his guess was anywhere near correct Sakura was just now babbling Narutos ears full with any possible (and some impossible) things that might have happened to her crush. Poor Naruto...<p>

The Door to the Hokages office opened and a Medi-Kunoichi stepped out, waving him in and then starting off towards the exit. Kakashi hurried to enter.

The Hokage sat behind his desk, Morino Ibiki standing at his left, as Kakashi entered the room. The rather ominous looks the 2 older Shinobi wore on their faces made the "Copynin" gulp. He decidedly hoped that his prized student would come out of this in one piece, and more or less sane, but the presence of Ibiki, always unnerving, made him reconsider that maybe, just maybe, it had been a spy somehow disguised as Sasuke. Although the fact that he HAD shown to posess the Sharingan strongly spoke against it...

"Well Kakashi-san", the Hokages voice cut through his musings, the soft but firm tone making a heavy weight drop from Kakashis shoulders, "it seems that we cannot deny that your "captive" IS Sasuke Uchiha."

The one visible Eye of Konohas second most famous (living) Ninja closed in sudden relief. _Thanks to all the Gods. _He almost let his shoulders slump a bit, but regained his composure just in time to hear the next bomb drop.

"However", the old mans voice rose to a somehow …. wondering tone, "it turned out that he is not _our_ Sasuke Uchiha."

"...What?" Was the somewhat less than eloquent response the Copynin gave.

With a sigh the Hokage waved him to take a seat, which Kakashi did, lest the next thing the old man would most assuredly drop make him actually fall over. Seeing how this day had gone up to now that was an entirely valid precaution.

"Ibiki-san and I ….. interviewed Sasuke using a rather special, draining and strenuous Jutsu which by the way makes it impossible for him to remember the Interview, inc ase you were worried about any damage to his mind. It also allowed us to be absolutely sure of the truth of the things he told us." he didn't mention that this Jutsu needed a vast difference in the chakra levels of the interrogators and the interrogated, the reason why it wasn't used in normal torture).

The old man lighted his pipe and let Kakashi chew on that for a while, Ibiki there-while stood at attention, betraying nothing.

With a sigh the Hokage took a deep mouthful of smoke. "Now his memories of Konoha are genuine. There is no known method to impact such detailed and lengthy memories into a mind without leaving traces of manipulation, and we found none of those. Still, his memories differ, in some parts rather vastly, from what we _know _to have happened. As we can safely eliminate the possibility of another Konoha Gakure existing in another land of fire with all of us living in it, that leaves only one option. He is from another Reality." At that the Hokage looked as if he had his mouth full of lime-juice. Kakashis brow shot up. Another reality? WHAT? Had someone covered his Icha-Icha book in hallucinogenic powder? What would be next, Gai in sensible clothing?

"I can see in your face that you deem this impossible. However it is not. We know of at least 2 other occurrences, one in Konoha shortly after the 1st Ninja War, the other one roughly 100 years earlier and only second-hand, where such things happened." He drew some smoke.

"However this case is vastly different as our "Guest" had a very different life. In his world Sasuke had a normal childhood, except from awakening his Sharingan at a very early age, his clan survived as Itachi did not turn traitor and Obito lived through your mission. As you can imagine the reality of our Konoha will come as a vast shock to him." He didn't leave Kakahsi much time to respond.

"Even knowing that he DOES speak the truth, we have no idea on HOW he got here or, even worse, on how to send him back, though I do know of some scrolls we might find clues about that. This and the fact that since our Sasuke seems to have vanished when he arrived hence leaving him our only Uchiha, makes it imperative that you do your absolute best to make him as comfortable as possible, considering the circumstances. This means integrating him into Team 7 and hoping for the best. For now at least. You should tell Naruto and Sakura what happened though, they know him well enough to find out on their own anyway." With that the Hokage sighed again. "I know this wont be easy, but I have faith in you and Naruto to get it done. Sasuke will be brought to his house within the next few minutes and should awaken soon" With a nod he dismissed the still quite speechless Kakashi.

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><p>Kakashi was still deep in thought when he exited a road at the border of the Uchiha District. A Sasuke not driven by revenge, having grown up with multiple Sharingan-instructors and already having his own active at the age of 8! Even considering all the nonsense about alternative realities and the fact that this obviously wasn't <em>his <em>pupil, he could not help but wonder how much that might have boosted his skills and abilities.

Overall, he thought, it might have been a very lucky coincidence (or whatever) that brought the "_Other Sasuke" _here...

Yes, he would do his best to make him improve. Deep in thought he arrived at the gate to the district.

Naruto and Sakura had arrived on the gate to the district before him! While that usually wouldn't have perturbed Kakashi, this time he had not even informed them! Hm, probably the Hokage had, so he just nodded to them and went inside, making his way to Sasukes house in silence.

Interestingly Naruto and Sakura kept silent as well. Maybe they were finally learning that...

"Kakashi-sensei!" So far for learning, Kakashi thought as Sakura interrupted his train of thought.

"Whats the matter with Sasuke-kun? Is he sick? Is there anything we can do to help?" The pink-haired kunoichis voice was even more exasperated than usual.

"Sasuke has had a very interesting day." Kakashi replied, stalling for time. How the hell was he supposed to explain something to them that he himself had a hard time believing, never mention understanding. He sighed and decided to go with the simple "different memory" explanation for now. He could still elaborate details once he himself had a better grasp.

"Listen you two, what I am telling you now is considered a village secret. Got it?" Both of his pupils nodded enthusiastically. "Good. Sasuke is not the Sasuke we know. His memories are different." He raised his hand interrupting any interruptions. "Why exactly that is the case I will explain once we are in possession of all the information. For now you only need to know that in his memory his clan was never massacred by Itachi. This led to Sasuke having a more peaceful and normal childhood, for an Uchiha prodigy that is. This morning I discovered him at the Memorial Stone, and reading all his families names on the monument shocked him into unconsciousness. I expect you two to do your best to help him acclimatize." There, that should do the trick. Hopefully the Hokage would come up with a solution, or at least more information, soon.

"Of course, I will do everything to help Sasuke-kun!" Sakura exclaimed, her eyes already tearing up. Narutos face showed deep thought (or indigestion?) instead. "So, he's not all gloomy and talking about being alone? Only that now he IS? Damn, that's hard..." the blondes voice trailed off. Yes, Kakashi could imagine that that made the "Demon-brat" think.

They arrived at Sasukes house while the orange clad Ninja was still "thinking". "Now then", Kakashi stated. "How about we go in and see if he is awake?"

And that they did.

* * *

><p>Sasuke once again did his best to rise out of the dark depths of unconsciousness. That was the third time, dammit! What was the matter with him? He hadn't fainted that often in the whole last year! His eyes snapped open, almost angry looking, only to see his team. Kakashis eye smiled, as did Naruto, no grinned was a better description, and Sakura smiled slightly but looked worried as well. Great, she would worry about him anyway...<p>

"What did I miss?" he asked with a quiet but relatively steady voice.

At that Kakashi sighed. "Well Sasuke, there are a few things that I have to tell you that you won´t want to hear, but there's no use in delaying..." And so Kakashi waved Naruto and Sakura to wait outside for a bit. And started to fill in his pupil on the facts of being the last Uchiha, heir to the clan, and from another world.

Outside the room Naruto and Sakura were leaning against the wall opposite to Sasukes room and waited. Until they heard a loud "Noo!" followed by a louder crashing sound and a somewhat more quiet "Dammit!" They locked eyes, and simultaneously decided to go in and see if they could help.

Once through the door the sight of a slightly guilty looking Kakashi and a slumped over Sasuke greeted them, as well as a smashed table. Sakura immediately hurried to get to her crush and comfort him, but he lifted his head, a somewhat resigned smile on his face. "Well", he said with a shaky tone of voice, "Seems I cant do anything against it anyway. So as uncle Obito always said _"Play with the cards you are dealt, because life wont give you another hand" " _He straightened himself, nodded towards Kakashi, an then said: "I`M OK. No fuss."

And so they left, with a rather proud looking Kakashi behind them, to take their first mission.

The _other _Team 7 was formed...

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><p><strong>AN:<strong> And here we go, Team 7 is reunited, somewhat, and we are ready to "launch" the actual story now.

Mostly a "getting started" chapter, but still I hope you like it, feedback is always appreciated.


	3. Small Time Activities

Naruto crouched behind a small bush while waiting for the accursed cat to come his way. In a rare moment of foresight the blonde had also dispersed 3 Kage Bunshin behind the other 3 bushes large enough to cover his orange glory, just in case Tora would again foil his ambush. His stomach was grumbling loud enough to make that a distinct possibility, Sasuke mused while standing on a nearby tree. He could hear it from more than 5m away, dammit! No way he would spend more time than absolutely necessary to run after that accursed feline demon, also hungry teammates were sloppy teammates, and sloppy teammates led to disaster, as his uncle had taught him.

No, he would end this quickly, and then see to it that Naruto got something into that noisegenerator.

So when Tora came running around the edge of a side-street, followed by Sakura, he simply jumped down to the street and calmly looked at the Cat...

* * *

><p>Naruto was ready to jump out of his hiding place when Sasuke just landed gracefully in front of the racing Tora. Damn, he made everything look easy, that...<p>

Narutos train of thought was cut short however, when Tora simply walked towards Sasuke and he took her up. Sakuras eyes were wide, and Narutos as well though he himself couldn't see them. How the hell had he done that?

The answer came when Sasuke, a small smirk on his lips, turned around to display deep red eyes with something black spinning in them. That had to be the famed Sharingan then! Damn, as if the "Uchiha prodigy" hadn't been enviable enough before...

"Now lets deliver that little fleabag while the Genjutsu lasts, and get something to eat, hn?" The last Uchiha said to no-one in particular, sounding only very slightly arrogant. "I think I'll invite you to Ichirakus Naruto, after all if your stomach gets any louder we might see some Inuzuka running towards us intend to tame the unknown but clearly wild beast..." And then Sasuke actually _winked _at him! Kakashi had said that Sasuke might be different, but up to now he had seemed pretty much the same. While they walked towards the Old ladies House to deliver the Evil Cat Naruto couldn't help but wonder. Was this _new _Sasuke actually a more friendly, plain _nice,_ version, or was it just his way of trying to get to know them better? Or even a prank? Who knew. And as far as Naruto was concerned, who cared? He had been invited to Ichirakus, that was all that counted for the moment...

Sakura therewhile had recovered enough from the newest display of Sasukes indisputable awesomeness to catch up to the fact that her crush had invited Naruto and her to eat something! While Ichiraku wasn't her idea of a romantic dinner, especially with Naruto in tow, it was a start...

And so a rather pleased Sasuke and 2 very pleased team members lost in their own thoughts delivered the cat and hence finished their first mission as _new _Team 7.

* * *

><p>A few hours, and more ramen than Sasuke had ever seen <em>his <em>Naruto eat, later the 3 had parted ways for the evening. Had he not been the sole clan heir in this world, and the thought still bugged him to no end if he was honest, the cost for that little friendliness would have depleted his weekly stipend completely.

As it was he could afford it, though next time he would be more careful. At least Sakura, while far more annoying due to her "Sasuke-kun here and Sasuke-kun there", had only eaten one bowl. Some things never changed, he mused while walking towards training ground 4. Even seeing that he obviously had almost as many, though younger, fangirls here as Itachi had had "at home" Sakura was still to ... clingy for his taste. In his world she had clung to him in hopes of getting closer to Itachi, but otherwise all was pretty similar. The attention in general was nice, at least until he thought about the _why _to closely, but he would have to do something about Sakura soon. The way she acted now the team would suffer a significant blow to its efficiency once under stress, with her clinging to him all the time and being brutishly rude to Naruto while the blonde only tried to be friendly Yes, he was obnoxious and overtly eager. So what? Naruto was Naruto after all. If one could not accept his team, he still couldn't bring it over himself to call them _friends _yet_, _the way they were that hinted at some deep emotional problems...

He was cut out of his musings (he was thinking entirely too much since he had gotten "dumped" here he decided, and used to little of his mind to being aware of his surroundings) by seeing a green-clad boy with bushy eyebrows and a haircut that positively screamed "please mock me!" doing one-fingered pushups at the training ground he had intended to use for the next hour. The boy was wearing green spandex, like Gai usually did, and seemed to be around Sasukes own age. His trained eyes (without using his Sharingan for now) quickly realized that the boy was extremely fit and toned. Hm, maybe an interesting sparring partner had just appeared. And one he had never seen in his world to boot! Sasukes mouth flowed into a thin, pleased smile.

"Ahem". He made his presence known by clearing his throat rather loudly.

The green clad boy jumped up (effortless, and very fast, Sasuke was impressed) and looked at him. "Sasuke Uchiha. I am pleased to meet you! Have you come to train your flames of youth in this place as well?"

Train his flames of youth? That guy even sounded like Gai, that confirmed it. In this world the "Green Beast" had a pupil. While never someone to look at with anything but mirth, Gai was lauded to be _The Best_ regarding Taijutsu ina ll of Konoha. That promised to be an interesting spar indeed... Now he only had to circumvent proving that he didn't know the boys name. Shouldn't be too hard...

"You could say that, yes. However my teammates were not able to join me, so I intended to do some Jutsu training instead. However since you seem to be here all on your own as well, how about a little spar?" First some kind of sadness showed in the boys face, but quickly vanished as Sasuke mentioned sparring. The "Minibeasts" eyes lid up at that. " Yes, Neji and Ten Ten are busy on their own this evening, running a little errand for Gai-sensei. Of course, I would be honored to spar with the Uchiha prodigy!" His smile was almost blinding as he loudly exclaimed his willingness to train. He bowed, then he moved to take a rather straight Taijutsu stance, his left hand extended towards Sasuke, his right behind his back, roughly 5m from Sasuke and said: "May our bout be full of fire and serve to improve our prowess!" Sasuke simply nodded his head and went to assume a relaxed, wide-legged stance, his hands at his sides, held at the ready but betraying nothing. He decided to spar without the Sharingan for now, if he needed it he could still activate it later, and he _really _wanted to see how his training would fare against what Gais pupil had to offer.

Which he promptly did when his sparring partner moved to attack without ado. The boy was faster than any opponent outside Itachi or Kakashi Sasuke had ever sparred against and he barely managed to evade his first kick and brush his first 2 punches aside. His second kick however connected with his right side, and Sasuke went flying sideways. Damn, if the boy kicked that hard in sparring he deserved his best as well, so while rolling to his feet, utilizing the green "Bowlerheads" own kick to put more distance between them, Sasuke activated his Sharingan. Immediately he was aware of multiple ways to counter his, already moving, opponents next move, which would consist of 2 fast kicks towards his center of mass followed by 2 quick double punches. Sasuke slid under the kicks and his left hand gripped his opponents ankle, pulling him off balance, while his right leg came up in a short but vicious kick to the boys other thigh. This should have dropped him, but he only somersaulted away from Sasuke. Fast, technically well versed and able to take such a hit without flinching? Sasukes smile widened. This was going to be fun. His opponent nodded respectfully and smiled as well. And the spar continued.

Sasuke was (a little) more refined technically and able to largely dominate the spar due to his Sharingan, but his partner was faster, a good deal stronger and had more stamina. Not to mention he could take hits like a brick wall. After almost 5 minutes without taking another hit he realized that, even with his Sharingan, using Taijutsu alone he could not win unless he would go for a disabling attack, which would mean risking to significantly injur him. And following everything he had learned, that was absolutely off limits in a spar. So he instead opted for one of the 2 Sharingan-driven Genjutsu he knew. While he had never had his elder brothers talents in that regard, his opponent was young and unless he was sorely mistaken obviously a Taijutsu-focused Ninja and hence unlikely to realize what Sasuke was doing quickly enough to counter it. His Tomoe started spinning faster as he poured chakra into his eyes and activated the rather comically named (but Uncle Obito never had been the most somber or pompous member of the family, so his naming habits weren't that big of a surprise) but nonetheless potent supportive "Air of Honey" Jutsu. Suddenly his opponent felt as if moving through honey. His formerly fast, precise movements became sluggish and slow. Which Sasuke quickly exploited by launching 2 kicks to his stomach, followed up by a 5-punch combination around the boys solar plexus. He ended his Genjutsu at the exact moment the green clad boy started dropping to his knees, wheezing for air.  
>Sasuke smirked with satisfaction. Then his lips widened into a true smile. "You are a very competent opponent." he stated, helping the beaten Ninja to catch his breath. "This spar was a challenge, one I would very much like to repeat. Hadn't I surprised you with my Genjutsu you would probably have won in the end." A little praise was never wrong, and his own ego more than strong enough to live through giving praise to a beaten opponent, and the eyes of his sparring partner lit up. "Thank you, Sasuke. I enjoyed the bout as well and will gladly spar you again!" He seemed to want to say more, but in that exact moment a loud, booming voice shouted "Lee-kun! That was a splendid display of youthly fire! You as well Sasuke-kun! I enjoyed watching you two fan your flames to new heights!" Sasuke turned his head to see Gai standing atop a treebranch nearby. So, the boys name was Lee? He would remember that.<p>

"However", Gai continued, "You will have to stop training now, Sasuke-kun. Your sensei, my eternal rival Kakashi, is looking for you. Go meet him at the Hokages Tower!".

Sasuke could think of only one reason for a summon this late, Team 7 had a new mission. So he stretched a bit, his ribs were still a bit sore after the hit he had taken, and made his way to the Tower.

* * *

><p>Once Team 7 had entered the Hokages office, they immediately were assaulted by an immense aroma of alcohol. It obviously originated from the balding, bearded old man standing in front of the Hokages desk.<p>

Said Hokage started speaking almost as soon as the door had closed behind them. "This is Tazuna, a bridge builder from Wave Country. Your next mission is to escort him to his home, as he fears that bandits might target him due to the fact that he is rather famous in his country." He withdrew a small folder from a larger stack of folders on his desk and gave it to Kakashi. "This is the necessary information. You will start tomorrow at Sunrise. Dont. Be. Late." The last three words Sarutobi formed silently, but Kakashi got it nonetheless.

Tazuna therewhile looked over Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura. "Kids? You're sending KIDS to protect me? I didn't pay for a freaking Kindergarten!" His breath was so suffused with alcohol that Sasuke was almost waiting to see fire coming out of his mouth. Almost. The Hokage would have none of this however, and replied with a stern voice. "These 3 are Genin of Konoha. They are more than able to deal with a few bandits. Besides you DO have Kakahsi, one of our absolute best, as backup. I will not tolerate you insulting my Ninja. If you want more and stronger protection you should maybe pay more..."

At that Tazuna lowered his head. "Yeah, yeah, OK. I get it."

"Good" Kakashi now spoke for the first time since arriving in the office. "We will meet at the main Gate at sunrise tomorrow morning. Be sure to be …. ready." Sasuke was pretty sure he had meant "sober". Now Kakashi turned to his team. "Pack your gear. I expect that we will be traveling about a week to Wave and back. Be sure to get enough supplies. And then rest, this will not be as easy as catching cats..." The Copynin smirked at Sasuke at that. Sasuke smirked back.

He was eager for a real mission, even if it was guarding an old drunkard.

He would be ready.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>There you go. A little bit of info regarding Sasukes capabilities, a new difference between the 2 worlds revealed, and all set for the Wave Mission.

Review and tell me what you think. Feedback keeps me happy, and when happy I update faster.


	4. A simple mission

Sasuke sighed as they took yet another break to allow Tazuna to catch his breath. This mission, which had already started off the wrong foot when the old drunkard had insulted his team in front of the Hokage, had taken a trip south since then. Continuously. Not only was their travel speed abysmal because of the old man, no due to his drinking (where did he keep all the booze? Sasuke might have to search his package this night and do something against it!) and constant derogatory stares, mostly towards Naruto, this was almost as bad as the usual D-Rank. And he had so hoped that it would involve some fun. A battle or two, disposing of some bandits, with luck collecting the bounty to their heads, a quick travel, delivery of the old man, and done.

Another inaudible sigh escaped his lips. At least the weather was nice. Sunny, dry, warm but not hot, perfect to travel. He took a swig from his canteen, wiped his lips and went to get Naruto, who was actually supposed to fill their water reserves at a nearby stream but had forgotten to take Sasukes canteen with him. _And _was late yet again. As much as he (sometimes) liked the blondes idealism and pranks, his tendency to take absolutely nothing assigned to him serious was something he loathed.

After 2 minutes he found his orange-clad teammember, standing near the stream and watching the water intently. He didn't seem to have heard him approach, so Sasuke decided that it was time to show this Naruto what he had shown "his" long ago. That just because he was a member of the dignified Uchiha Clan that didn't mean he could not return a little pranking to those who so willingly gave it. He silently moved towards Narutos back, intending to "accidentally" scare him, causing him to fall into the stream. He was just about to do the deed as Naruto suddenly bowed and shot his right hand into the water, just to pull it out almost as quickly, a silvery fish caught in its grasp. "Yay, got you!" he yelled and jumped up, which caused Sasuke to step back. Only that someone was standing behind him, into whom he now crashed. Which felt unexpectedly soft... He frantically tried to catch his bearings, but Naruto chose this exact moment to turn around and start running, most likely intent to brandish his fish to them, without looking ahead, causing Sasuke to evade to the left, where he slipped on something wet, falling into the shallow stream himself. The water was COLD. The shock made him almsost swallow some of it, but he controlled himself.

When he pulled his head out of the water, his hands beneath him, and looked towards whatever had caused him to stumble, he saw Sakura standing there, red as a tomato, clutching her modest chest. OK, so that had been the soft...never mind. Next to her Naruto snickered. "Man, that was a stunt. I`ve never seen someone fall into a stream after colliding with his teammates like a ping pong ball, never mind with that much grace. Must be an Uchiha thing, eh?" Sakuras face almost immediately turned an angry red instead of an embarrassed one, but Sasukes mirthful chuckle cut her reaction short. He had deserved that barb, how funny that must have looked... His musings where however cut short by the fact that both Naruto and Sakura where staring at him like he had grown another head.

"What?" His tone was now slightly annoyed. Naruto fidgeted. "Eh, you just laughed about a joke I made, one targeting YOU..." His tone was only marginally short of incredulous.

"Yeah, it was damn funny. Especially since you are absolutely right, I should have been more alert." The stares intensified. "What, am I supposed to be some sort of arrogant, prickly snob who cannot value a good joke from friend only because he is the target?" Sasukes tone of voice suggested that he did NOT think that to be a fitting description.

"Ah, well, uh …. yes?" Narutos answer was accompanied by a slight reddening of his cheeks. Friend? Had Sasuke just openly called him a friend? After he had laughed at him?

"Damn..." Sasuke sighed. Changing their perception of him might take a while, but he would do it. Being snobby to ones friends and ignorant of ones fallibility where, after all, the safest way to ensure failure of the team, and hence the mission, short of actual incompetence. He sighed as he climbed out of the water. Standing there, his hair dripping into his eyes, blue shirt and black trousers dripping wet, he was (for the second time only) really glad about uncle Obitos choice of Jutsus he had taught his nephew. He performed a quick series of 5 handsigns, and a small and entirely non-flashy (and combatwise entirely useless) Fire-Jutsu quickly dried his clothing, producing small clouds of steam. Sakura had obviously reclaimed her slipping grip on reality and watched him with an "Oh, he is SO cool/Hot" expression. Which for once he did not mind at all. After all, he had just been (rightfully) laughed at. A little admiration was not THAT bad as compensation...

Dry and with filled canteens the 3 Genin made their way back to Kakashi and Tazuna, who would no doubt continue to throw them condescending glances and spread alcoholic fumes.

* * *

><p>After this short (but fun) episode they continued towards their second intended resting place (Sasuke had watered and collected some dirt to produce earprotectors against Tazunas snoring, after not getting much sleep last night) with renewed vigor. Well, most of them, Kakashi never showed any signs of vigor or fatigue anyway, and Tazuna...better not think about him too much, Sasuke decided.<p>

"I'll take point if it's ok with you. I need something to get my mind working." He said to his sensei, who simply nodded. And so he brought some distance between himself and the group, "scouting" ahead just within sight of them, as long as the road was straight that was. This had actually not even been an exaggeration, he needed to get his dulled mind working again, and there was nothing better to do that than scanning the area for dangers with his Sharingan. Seeing the paths things would take and thinking about what he could do was always good exercise. Not that he expected anything, mind that, but being lazy just wasn`t Sasuke.

Imagine his surprise when he saw a small puddle of crystal clear water on the road roughly 80m ahead. It had not rained for days, yet there it was. Could it be that some really _really _dumb Ninja thought that would be a good method to ambush travelers? Surely even regular bodyguards would notice that, not even mentioning any even remotely respectable Ninja. He decided to give the wannabe ambushers (always expect more than one ambusher, his father had drilled into him, and prepare accordingly) a little surprise and made a Shadow Clone, sending him towards the small nearby forest to circle to the other side of the puddle. He had immediately stolen Narutos Jutsu once he saw him do it the first time, though due to his lack of an extraordinarily huge chakra reservoir he could only make one clone without severely hampering his options. Still, 2 Taijustu-prodigies with the Sharingan and the advantage of surprise should be more than enough to handle anyone that stupid. He smirked. Even if he could laugh about his deserved ridicule, presenting the single handedly captured ambushers to Kakashi and his team (and that idiot Tazuna) would be oh so sweet. He sped up again, as now his clone should be close enough, and walked briskly towards the puddle, expecting the attack to happen once he had his back to it (at which point his clone would be in THEIR backs).

He was not disappointed, as soon as he was 3 meters past the unnatural water, 2 Ninja jumped out of it, both equipped with strange clawed gloves, connected with a chain, and wearing scratched Kiri headbands. He evaded the expected attack easily, his Sharingan spinning. Their technique was sloppy, only their speed and the ambush posed a true threat to any competent Ninja. While they tried to attack him again his clone exited the woods and jumped behind their backs, Shuriken already flying towards their legs. Further prove of their incompetence was that they didn't manage to evade them. Only the one on the right was able to continue the attack, and Sasuke decided to let him. He evaded 2 clumsy attacks with the (probably poisoned) glove, then his counterattack connected to the attackers stomach, followed by a straight kick to the chin. He went down without a sound except for the clinking of his chain. The other Ninja however had managed to complete the hand signs for a water bullet. Evading the projectile was hard, Sasuke managed to get out of the way only partially, so his left shoulder was hit by a glancing blow. Painful, but not too bad. His clone however kicked the offender into the back of his head rather viciously. And the deed was done.

Sasuke got out his wire and bound the 2 to a nearby tree. He also removed all their weaponry, and while their technique (and likely intelligence) might have been lacking, their gear was of high quality. The kunai were at least of excellent quality, and while strange their gloves looked even better at close inspection. He piled up all the weapons and gear for now, he would claim his portion of the bounty later, and dispelled his clone after making sure no one else was near, sitting down on a tree trunk to wait for Kakashi and the others. It had become a good day, despite the crappy start, Sasuke decided. A smirk on his lips he leaned back, massaging his hurting shoulder.

* * *

><p>A smirking Sasuke relaxed leaning on a treetrunk was the sight that greeted Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto and Tazuna when they reached the place of the unsuccessful ambush about 5 minutes later.<p>

"Well, Sasuke you seem to have had some …. fun." Kakashi drily remarked while looking around in a casual way. "Yep. Result of said fun is back there." Sasuke replied, just an air of superiority in his voice while pointing behind himself. "Turns out some _really _stupid Ninja tried an ambush here..." He added more quietly as Kakashi went by him. Kakashi merely nodded and went on to see what his prodigy had caught. Just to stop rather abruptly. "Those are the "Demon Brothers". Missing Nin from Kirigakure." He turned toward Naruto. "Make a few dozen clones and station them around, will you?" He did not wait until said deed was accomplished but turned towards Sakura and Sasuke. "Keep Tazuna safe. I will interrogate Sasukes captives." And he went off to do exactly that.

A few minutes later Sasuke and Naruto sat next to each other, watching Sakura, 4 Naruto-clones and Tazuna talking. "Well done Sasuke, you caught 2 missing Nin. Were they hard to beat?" Naruto asked.

"Nah, wouldn't have been hard to beat for anyone with a little talent. They actually tried an ambush by hiding in a puddle on the road. Even you, being less than a good observer would have realized that it is far to dry for such a thing." His tone was slightly mocking, but in a friendly way. "I actually beat them by using a Kage Bunshin though..." he added with a smirk, at which Naruto obviously didn't know if he should feel honored or insulted, so being Naruto he went for honored.

"Hey, the great Sasuke using my techniques? I feel honored..."

And so they bantered a bit, somewhat reacquainting with each other during the process, Sasuke telling the whole (short) story, passing the time until Kakashi returned.

Which he did after roughly 15 minutes. "Well, it seems that we have to have a talk with our bridge builder. Following the "Demon Brothers" Tales, which I deem reliable, a man named Gatou hired them and other missing Nin to kill Tazuna. Which makes me believe he intentionally lied to us about the mission." At that Kakashi ominously looked at Tazuna who was sitting against a stone and drinking. "I think we should teach him a lesson." Sasuke knew what Kakashi had in mind, and grinned towards Naruto. "I'm in." The orange clad boy nodded. He had wanted to get back at the old man since the first time they met and he had insulted them. This would be fun...

He followed his sensei, who's one visible eye was hard as glass as he walked towards their client. he stopped not 2 meters from the drunkard, looking down at him. "I do not like being lied to. Neither does my team. You knew that enemy Ninja were trying to kill you, yet you only payed for a C-Rank and told us you were afraid of bandits. This has put my team in danger, and if Sasuke had not acted as professionally as he did, you might actually be dead right now." The Copynins voice was hard and cold, his body language betrayed nothing. Sasuke smirked evilly at him. Naruto looked angry.

Tazuna blanched and gulped. Three Ninja were mad at him, and they were the ones supposed to _protect_ him; this was bad...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Here you go, The mission has begun. And one old bridge builder has it coming for him ;)

On a sidenote I am a bit miffed about the lack of reviews (especially for the last chapter, whats wrong?). So: Go review. Tell me you like it, or that you dont, feedback is what I need to improve (or praise is what I want to hear if I dont need to ;) ).


	5. Harsh Solutions

Tazuna stared up at the Ninja staring at him, sweat starting to coat his forehead. The orange clad one scowled (albeit with an almost comical angle between his brows) as if he was going to jump at him any moment now. And would massively enjoy it to boot. His gaze quickly switched to the blue/black clad boy. His eyes, what the hell was the matter with those eyes? Deep red, with 2 Tomoe lazily spinning in them...looking at him like he was some sort of specimen to be dissected...his face totally impassive and cold... The old Drunkard quickly switched to look the adult into the eye. That one HAD to be more reasonable, even if he had said... The sole visible eye was cold and hard as glass as it stared down at him. No emotion whatsoever was visible, made worse by the fact that his face was mostly concealed. The man drew out a book and started flapping through it, as if searching something...what had he gotten himself into?

"Well," the white-haired man finally spoke, his left index finger on something on the page he was looking at. "It seems that the regulations are clear. If clients are found lying regarding mission parameters and the affected Team is not within easy communication range of Konohagakure it is ordered to either immediately …. dispose of the client in any not too cruel way it sees fit, or to bring said offender to Konoha to hand him over to torture and interrogation for further information gathering if it is under the impression that may be done without endangering the teammembers." He looked at the red-eyed teen. "Sasuke has already captured 2 Missing Nin which we need to bring home to collect the bounty on their heads, so it seems to me that we cannot be burdened with bringing him to Konoha." His gaze wandered to the other teen. "Naruto, can you keep your Shadow clones active long enough to carry our bound `client´ to Konoha without impairing your effectiveness?" The tone of the voice was casual, with just an edge of coldness as he asked these questions. The blonde frowned. "Huh, I have never tried to keep them active for longer than 2-3 hours, so I can't really say..." he almost drawled. His face looked positively menacing, his grin was far too pleased to fit with his fury-laden eyes.

"Too bad, it seems that we have no other choice than to dispose of him right here and now, as we lack the time to do a proper interrogation, and then return home..." Kakashi trailed off, putting the book away and drawing a Kunai. "Kids, this will be messy. I think it would be better if you went and looked after our prisoners. You too Sakura." The up to then still as a statue Kunoichi visibly straightened. "Yes, Kakashi-sensei!" And turned to leave together with Sasuke and Naruto. kakashi focused on Tazuna again "Any last words?" He asked, in a tone that wasn't really a question.

At that Tazuna could not keep silent any longer. Sinking to his knees he almost screamed "Please, don't do this! You don't have to, I will tell you everything. I really did not lie to you because I had any hidden agenda or something, I just could not afford to pay any more Ryu, please, oh please don't kill me!" The old mans voice was full of panic. Not only for his life but for his family and Wave as a whole. They all would suffer if he died here and now! He threw himself to the ground, half pleading, half out of fear. And groveled there, expecting his life to end any moment now. Any moment...he was still alive? And did he hear snickering? Tazuna slowly raised his eyes towards the threatening group of Ninja, still standing around him, but now displaying mirth (The blue clad and the adult one) respectively snickering with a wide grin (the orange clad boy).

"Ah, Tazuna-san, I _do _hope that this lesson will be enough." Kakashi spoke with only a very slight amount of killing intent loosened at the word lesson. "As next time there will be no jokes, no threats, just ….. consequences. Am I clear?"

"P- p-perfectly." Was all the old man could utter. He would not die! His relief was clearly visible on his face, and Naruto finally lost it. He fell over with loud, obnoxious belly-laughter. He rolled on the ground, laughing. Sasuke could only shake his head in exasperation. Yes, it had been funny as hell to taunt the old bastard, but why did the blonde have to ruin it by loosing all specks of dignity he possessed? Ah well, he smirked at Tazuna. At least from now on they would be treated with the respect they deserved, he was sure of that as the old man blanched again. AND they would get the whole story too, which would probably keep them all alive.

"Good. Now spill it." Kakashi ordered Tazuna. Then he proceeded to kick Naruto "softly". He didn't need to say anything, Naruto knew he should pull himself together. But this prank had been so much fun... Still, he wanted to know what was up, so he tried his best to limit his laughter. More or less successfully.

They sat down again, Sakura eying the three male members of her team with a slightly miffed look. As if to say "Why didn't you tell me". Typical, this girl could do nothing with any _real _ardour behind it, except clinging to him of course, Sasuke mused.

"OK then, to start at the beginning..." And Tazuna told his tale, about Gatou, his crimes, his vice-like grip on Wave, the prospect of his bridge breaking said grip, and the retaliation of the "businessman". His family, their own suffering, the general miserably poor life in Wave and how he intended to change that. Truly, the old drunkard had never seemed less despicable than right now. Had he only told the Hokage, he would have gotten a free Upgrade to B-rank, Sasuke assumed, as more stability in Wave would be GOOD for Konoha, especially if they would be able to claim the credit for achieving it.

The tale took almost half an hour to tell, and at the end Tazuna bowed deeply. "I know that I have forfeit your support by lying to you, but PLEASE help me. My bridge is the only hope Wave has to escape its poverty, an without you I will not survive long enough to build it."

Kakashi looked at their client without moving a muscle. Tazuna started to sweat again, and seemed to want to bow again, as the lackluster Jounin simply said: "OK." Tazuna almost fell over in gratitude.

Kakashi rose and looked around. "Get your gear into the forest, we will camp there. I will send for someone to pick up your "prey", Sasuke, and you will receive the bounty, minus the usual 25% for Konoha, once we have cleared it with Kirigakure. The highest one any Genin of Konoha has ever collected if I remember correctly." he added with a smile in his eye. He then turned to his Genin. "If you like you can resupply from their weapons, though I will take the gloves and seal them for now. We do not have time to start practicing with a new type of weapon. Also anything you find that you do not know what it is will be handed to me!" he said the last words with a tone of absolute authority, and looked at Naruto while doing so. The Prankster simply nodded. Foiled again. Ah well, at least he would get some free new weapons!

And so, under Sasukes guidance, the three piled through the Weapons and gear of the brothers. Naruto went for 4 Kunai, all of excellent quality, while Sakura took a small but spacious sash with many pockets. Always pragmatic, Sasuke thought. Sasuke clambered through their stuff and collected all Shuriken he could find (only 8! They really were strange ninja) only to turn towards Naruto with an appraising look in his eyes. "Naruto, why don't you try this on?" he asked, throwing him a slightly armored vest one of the brothers, the smaller one, had been wearing. Narutos style was relatively direct, and additional armor could increase the survivability of his clones by a narrow margin. Plus it was not orange. He smirked at the thought.

Naruto slipped into the greyish shoulder guards and vest and put the left arm guard on. They were a good, though not perfect, fit. "Hey, thanks Sasuke, this isn`t bad at all. Only wished it was orange..." he made some very crude Taijutsu moves with it. "Pretty light too." He turned to Sasuke and said with a smile and rather wide blue eyes. "Thank you for sharing your loot with me!" But the short bout of seriousness did not last, as he immediately went to make 20 Shadow clones and test the effect the armor would have on his fighting style. Not that Sasuke would complain, after all he seemed to have come through to the boy. Yes, it had been a great day...

* * *

><p>After erecting their camp (and dosing their prisoners with something Sasuke assumed would keep them asleep) Kakashi went into the forest. Now he would probably use his mysterious contact method, Sasuke mused. Should he try to steal a glance? Ah why not, everything had worked out perfectly today, so he decided to push his luck, made a Shadow clone and sent him after his sensei (with active Sharingan of course), though not too close, as he was pretty sure Kakashi would be alert.<p>

"He" quietly followed Kakashi deeper into the small array of threes, hiding behind them, until his sensei stopped. With active Sharingan he tried to steal a peek or two, and was pleasently surprised to be able to fully see the handsigns Kakashi made after biting his thumb. What he wasn't prepared for was the appearance of a small, somewhat pudgy, dog who promptly spoke (!) in a rather deep voice. "Yo boss, whats it this time?" He had to work hard not to fall from the tree. Speaking dogs? In Ninja clothing? He had to check if Naruto had spiked his food...

"Well Pakku, my little pupil caught us some Missing Nin today, but our mission prevents us from delivering them. So go to Konoha and carry this," at that he fastened a small tube at the Dogs neck "To Ibiki. And no, you are not supposed to …. leave a message in his locker again." The last part was added with an almost audible smile. Pakku did not move. Kakashi exasperatedly added "It IS somewhat urgent..." "Ah ok. But I fully expect to be introduced next time. This time only one of your pupils came, and he was impolite enough not to shake paws..." And the small dog took off. Sasukes clone however was shocked. He had been sure to have kept hidden well enough...damn. He dispelled. Which led to the "real" Sasuke having interesting info dumped in his memory, together with the fact that his sensei knew he had spied. Gulp. He decidedly hoped that Kakashi was in a good...

With a swirl of leaves the central element of his train of thought appeared directly in front of the stunned Uchiha. "Sasuke, if you want to see a technique, ask me if I will show it to you. If you again try to sneak a glance (translation: steal it Sasuke added mentally) behind my back I will not teach you anything in the future. Are we clear?" The otherwise lackluster Kakashi sounded rather pissed, so Sasuke simply nodded. And meant it, an angry Kakashi was nothing he wanted to risk...

"Good. Now you will take first watch. And think about what I said, will you?" With that he went towards the fire where Sakura was cooking … something. Phew, catastrophe avoided, for now...

Just as Sasuke thought that, Sakura came towards him, a steaming bowl in her hands and slightly blushing. The bowl was held right in front of her chest...

* * *

><p>Somewhere else, a few hours later, Zabuza Momochi was pissed. The Demon Brothers were late. While they had a few appalling habits, none of them involved being late, as they knew that Zabuza hated that. That left only 2 viable options. Either they had run (which he doubted, they were far too similar to a less competent younger Zabuza to find solace somewhere else) or they had been defeated. He knew that this Gateau guy and his "simple mission" would be trouble. Men like that were always too arrogant and never told their "hired help" everything the needed to know about the mission. Bastards, all of them.<p>

Thinking about the devil made the small man appear. Damn, what did the ass want this time? His face would have scared anyone with 5 Ryo worth of brain, but alas he doubted the ass had half that much.

The "businessman" spoke in a mocking tone. "Zabuza, Zabuza, lying around while your target is still breathing. I suggest you get going. Now. Or we might have a..." Whatever he had wanted to say, it was cut short quite literally as Zabuza finally snapped and decided to ... remove the idiot. His men be damned, not a minute longer would he be taunted by the cretin. And so a whirling Kobikiri Honcho removed the head of the already short man from his shoulders and embedded itself in the wooden wall behind his corpse, its tip resurfacing outside and shocking Gateaus entourage. "Haku, remove the rest of them." Zabuza calmly ordered before the head had stopped rolling. He didn't wait for a reply, Haku was reliable. He had enough of being pushed around. He would go and kill whoever had beaten the Demon brothers, or who simply made the mistake of crossing his path, and then finally it might be the time to aim higher again. With Gateau gone this country was ripe for the taking. Maybe he would finally found his own village? A wide grin split his face, and the "Demon of the Mist" set out to once again show the world why he was rightly feared...

**AN: **

And here we go. A more ... evil chapter than usual, and all is set up for the first major confrontation. Big things are about to happen. Aren't you eager to get there?

I know I am.

On a sidenote: Thanks for the reassuring reviews, it is nice to have ones work appreciated. I enjoyed the praise. More reviews, please! :)


	6. Bold Decisions

Sasuke sat on a tree-trunk slightly apart from their camp, doing his watch while thinking hard. Not only regarding the things Kakashi had ordered him to think about, no, his mind, for some reason he was not yet aware of, could not shake the view of the slightly blushing Sakura bringing him his stew. Why? He admitted that she didn't look half bad, especially the rather striking combination of pink hair and vibrantly green eyes with the cute blush, but he had known her for quite some time now, and she was definitely too clingy and immature to think about any other relationship than being team mates. So why didn't he manage to get it out of his head? The only obvious answer would be that he WAS somehow interested in her in another way than regarding her importance in the team, which as she was now was rather minimal. Huh, maybe that would pose a viably solution. He decided to openly give her some hints at how to become an asset instead of a hindrance, and see what would happen. Yes, this was a perfectly explainable reason to think about her, and had absolutely nothing to do with any other thoughts he might have. He decided to start giving her …. advice tomorrow. He would make sure to give some to Naruto as well, no need in being too obvious and after all the blonde needed them almost as badly. Yes, that was a suitable path to take.

Sasuke continued his watch far less distracted than before.

* * *

><p>The rest of the night had gone by without anything happening (to their knowledge) and so Team 7 broke up its camp and continued on the path to Wave. They should reach their destination today, which was the reason for 6 Narutos moving ahead, beside and behind the group. While he was not the most attentive person, Shadow Clones that did not hamper their user did have their advantages.<p>

Still Sasuke, who took point again, kept scanning the area with his Sharingan most of the time.

Better save than sorry after all. After their breakfast he had taken Sakura aside and given her some ... hints on how to be an asset to the team, especially focusing (for a start) on stopping to ridicule Naruto in front of clients or enemies (altogether prohibiting laughing at the blonde would have been cruel after all, seeing the number of opportunities he provided) and being more alert than fawning over him all the time. She had looked at him as if he ahd grown a second head, but predictably agreed. Depending on how much of that she was able to actually perform he had promised to teach her a bit. Although she probably had some other form of teaching in mind, seeing how she had blushed at that. He smirked, it was only fair after all, seeing he had thought about some of her assets lately as well, ahem...back to scouting. Now.

He had also agreed to spar with Naruto to enable the blonde to actually develop something akin to Taijutsu instead of simply swarming everything with Kage Bunshin, but that would have to wait until they had time to do it. Doing such strenuous work while on the move, and probably being followed by enemy Ninja, would be the paramount of stupid. And as a good Uchiha, he would not sink to such lows. He smirked.

And so they marched for roughly 3 hours, the weather getting cloudier and cooler all the way, until they reached a small lake surrounded by trees and rocks, fueled by the rivulet they had been more or less following for the past hour or so. He had just wanted to ask if they would make their noon break here, when his Sharingan picked up a movement that would come his way roughly 50m ahead and "screamed" danger at him, and he instinctively dodged, shouting "Attack!" while he did so. And good that he did dodge, because the fucking huge sword that swished only inches over his head, cutting some of his unruly hair off, half a second later would have fileted him. Now it continued spinning until it embedded itself into a tree a few dozen meters behind the group (which due to Kakashi had managed to dodge it as well). Just as he wanted to ask what the hell was going on, a large, muscular man with bare chest, wearing only dark trousers, some sort of blackish arm warmers, a bandage covering half of his face and a scratched Kiri headband suddenly stood atop the swords long handle, scowling at them and emitting quite the amount of killing intent...

* * *

><p>Zabuza had eagerly been following the Demon Brothers trail when he stumbled over another set. These were rather less well hidden than he would have expected from any group able to defeat the brothers with such obvious ease and led towards Wave. So, probably his target had hired himself some competent protection. This would be fun!<p>

He followed the trail while sending Haku on ahead to circle the group and approach once he had engaged them. That is until he stumbled upon 2 exactly identical orange clad boys which were oblivious enough about watching their surroundings to not even remotely realize he was there. Clones behind the group, huh, not a bad idea. However the fact that these Ninja obviously let the less attentive one scout made him even more eager to end it fast, and so he advanced to get to them in a nice and obvious frontal assault. Maybe that would wake them up...

And waking them up it did, the brat at point even evades his Sword with enough time to warn the rest. Fast little bugger, still, time for his great entrance! It would never do to let his reputation drop after all...

* * *

><p>Kakashi tensed, quickly nodding Sakura and Naruto to shield Tazuna, for which purpose Naruto made 2 more clones.<p>

"Well well, Zabuza Momoshi, the Demon of the Mist himself. I had not expected you to work for scum like Gateau, but it seems being a Missing Nin forces you to sink even lower than I had expected from the likes of you." Kakashis tone was icy, his stance however betrayed the banter as just that. He held himself highly ready.

"If it isn't Sharingan Kakashi the "Copy Nin." Zabuzas Voice on the other hand showed clear signs of eagerness, and some kind of aggressive mirth. "And look at the cute little team you have there! Say, do they know what will happen now?" With that he launched himself from the sword, pulling it out of the tree and somersaulting to the ground in one smooth move, his killer Intent spiking sharply.

Sasuke had never heard of this "Demon of the Mist", but seeing Kakashis reaction made him gulp. If his sensei took the man that seriously, he was WAY out of his league, and worlds out of Narutos or Sakuras. Damn. And just as he had started to feel comfortably superior in his new team.

He drew a pair of Kunai and readied some Shuriken. Even if he was no threat against that Demon Guy on his own, he might be able to contribute. His Sharingan started to spin more quickly, as it tried to anticipate Zabuzas next move. The large Ninja however simply made a single sign, and Mist started to coalesce in the area.

"His "Favorite", the Hidden Mist Jutsu. Be wary, my pupils, he is a master of the art of silent killing." Kakashi said while removing the cover blocking his Sharingan. The Sharingan should give them both some advantages here, but Sasuke would have given half his weapons for a Hyuga right now. Ah well, when had he ever been that lucky? Stuck in a world where his elder brother had killed the whole clan, with no idea how he got there or how to get back. Compared to that this was just normal bad luck...

So he simple held himself ready, while Zabuzas voice started to count down the points where he would attack, and instantly kill, them. Stupid Killing Intent, it made Sasuke shake, even after training with Itachi from time to time, he had never experienced such amounts. He looked around frantically, trying his best to pierce the fog, but could see nothing. Tazuna had started to whimper to himself, and Naruto had dispersed 6 additional clones around their client. Wouldn't help much, Sasuke reckoned, but better than nothing. Which was exactly what Sakura was doing, dammit. He did not have the time (or energy if he was honest) to do something against that now however...

He had just thought that thought when Zabuza attacked...

* * *

><p>All the while, back in Konoha, the Hokage entered his room, where Ibiki was waiting for him, radiating a mixture of frustration and anger. "Sit, sit." He ordered his Master Torturer, while quickly walking to his seat and lighting his pipe, which had gone out quite some time ago. Leaning back and enjoying his first mouthful of smoke he sighed. "As you have not said anything yet, I assume your efforts of finding some info on what happened to Sasuke and how in the Uchiha compund where fruitless." He did not voice it as a question, but Ibiki nodded nonetheless, his face as impassive as most of the time. With another sigh the Hokage leaned forward. It was days like this that made him feel his age. He felt old now, far too old to hold his position. Nothing new, but still, it made him feel like a relic long better replaced by a more vigorous, more active Hokage.<p>

"Well, my efforts of searching all the secret Hokage Scrolls has provided similar results. I have ordered the Clan heads to search their libraries, but so far nothing surfaced. Unless Danzo has hidden something, and while I would not put it behind the traitorous old schemer to do that I am pretty sure he has not, the only place where we might find such information is in the 4th`s scrolls..." The Hokage had long ago told Ibiki all about Narutos "Legacy" as far as he knew, after all it was possible that the Master Torturer would have to … deal with Naruto should he lose it. "Alas until we tell Naruto everything, we cannot access them at all. So, until he gets back from his mission, I am sending you and 2 Anbu of your choice to go search info about the subject outside Konoha. You will start in..."

A few minutes later Ibiki left the Hokages room, and Sarutobi felt even more tired. Rushing the decision to reveal Narutos heritage or risk not knowing about a new threat to Konoha, including the possibility of loosing their last Uchiha, why were his decisions never easy? He relighted his pipe, took a deep swig of smoke, and went back to work. No use in mourning his fate now, he had to hold out for the time being...

* * *

><p>Sasuke managed to avoid the first water bullet that seemingly came out of nowhere only due to his Sharingan telling him where it would go. He could not however evade the second one, or it would have hit Sakura and Tazuna. He had long been taught by his uncle that relying on the Sharingan came with one major drawback: it was egoistic to the extreme. Yes, it showed you the "perfect" thing to do. Unless you had friends or clients to protect. So he threw his Kunai at the oncoming bullet while tackling his teammate and their stinking client, barely evading the attack. He whispered a "Stay down" into Sakuras ear and jumped away to prevent Zabuza (or more likely some clone of the Missing Nin) from having an easy target. But what could he do? He could not see farther than 2 meters, and blindly shooting Jutsu around was dangerous for his team without providing a real chance of hitting Zabuza. He heard water crash onto something not too far to his left. Probably Kakashi fighting the "Demon". That was his chance. He went through a series of 4 hand-signs and executed the "Sparrowhawk" Jutsu. The only combat-related one Obito had ever taught him, this Wind Type Jutsu allowed to boost ones speed while on open ground, though it only lasted until the chakra ran out or one executed another Ninjutsu. Still, he had to try, and so, with a speed that would have astonished his teammates, had they been able to actually see him, he rushed slightly to the left of the noises of battle, readying 6 Shuriken in his hands and concentrating on his Sharingan to the utmost of his ability. A small diversion would be all Kakashi would need to get an edge, he thought, and so that was what he would provide.<p>

As he exited the denser mist, he could see Kakashi and Zabuza standing on the lakes surface, blasting each other with Ninjutsu, namely Water Dragons at the moment. Awesome sight, and another Jutsu copied, though he doubted he would be able to execute it in the near future. He flipped to the left, aiming his Shuriken with all the precision and speed his Sharingan and Wind Jutsu gave him, threw them, landed and immediately started to execute the Hosenká no Jutsu. While this would deplete his chakra reserves down to less than half, he wouldn't be of much help anyway seeing their opponent could fight Kakashi on equal terms, so he blew 6 small fireballs at Zabuzas location, due to his perfect timing they landed exactly after the Shuriken had hit. Steam rose, obscuring his sight almost completely, but he kept moving, albeit far slower than before. That is until his Sharingan suddenly hurt, his vision getting somewhat _deeper_, and made him stab to the left with a Kunai while ducking under some kind of small but dangerous attack, just in time to hit …. something with it before an unimaginably strong force hit his torso and propelled him upward. Flying out towards the water, slowly rotating along his vertical axis, Sasukes wondered why he did not hurt at all while his sight faded to black, only vaguely seeing the spots of red flying with him, alternating between being lighted by the silver sky and framed by smooth, dark water, still active Sharingan plotting their paths until darkness claimed him...

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>Sorry for the delay, it took me longer than my usual 3-5 days because of some family issues as well as my birthday (yes, I am officially even older now...). The relative lack of reviews did not help either, so let me thank those of you who DID review!

You can expect the next chapter to be up some time around Tuesday at the latest. Earlier if inspiration hits me (or a huge amount of reviews lets my motivation spike).

Also, while I usually tend to avoid cliffhangers, maybe this will boost your interest...


	7. Aftermath

_A 10 year old Sasuke stood on the balcony of Uncle Obitos house near the western end of the Uchiha Compound, his Uncle standing to his right, both watching the beautifully purple sunset. "Always remember, Sasuke, it is not power that makes a good man, nor a good Ninja. It is the strength of ones will, ones skill and diversity as well as ones dedication that make you a good Ninja, and it are ones friends, dreams and virtues that make a good man. Be ready to lay down your life for your friends as you are for your family or Hokage, and they will show you the same service. Always be true to your ideals and your friends, and you cannot really go wrong." He smiled, even his glass eye seemed to gleam, when he turned to look at Sasuke. "You make me proud of being your teacher and uncle, Sasuke. I firmly believe that you will find your way. And if you find yourself straying off the path you wish to walk, or cannot find it anymore, come to me and I will do everything to help you." His warm hand rested on his nephews shoulder as he said that, and Sasuke felt warm, safe, at peace. _

_The watched the sun set and the evening star and the waxing moon rise before they went into the house again._

Sasuke slowly opened his eyes, seeing a rather ramshackle roof above himself. Just as he was about to ask what had happened, a entirely huge wave of pain raced through his body, and he lost consciousness again, only a small glimpse of the worried face of Sakura accompanying him back into the darkness...

* * *

><p>Naruto dispelled his clones, turned to Kakashi and said: "I've checked the area. No one except some civilians within 2 miles, I don't think we have been followed." This time he had used massive amounts of clones and searched as good as he could, unlike the time Zabuza had surprised them. Not really subtle, but effective.<p>

"Good. Then place 3 of them to protect Sasuke and 6 to guard the prisoner. I will try to regain some chakra as quickly as possible, but until then it is all up to you." His Sensei`s voice was strained and tired, but he was still able to walk to the bed Tazunas family had provided on his own, which was more than Sasuke or their strange prisoner could say of themselves. So Naruto just nodded and made more clones. He would not disappoint his team!

Kakashi sighed as he sat down on the bed. The battle had been really intense, Zabuza and himself blasting each other with Jutsu faster than he liked, as his chakra reserves had never been among the larger ones. Suddenly Sasuke had intervened, hitting Zabuza with 2 Shuriken and following up with a well timed Hosenká, creating enough diversion and sight obstruction for Kakashi to go for his opponent with a quickly charged Raikiri. However the notorious Nukenin had been able to evade it almost completely, only suffering a wound on his left forearm, preventing him from doing most Jutsu, but nothing too serious. They separated but Kakashi was sure he could win now. At that exact moment a masked Ninja had attacked Sasuke with extreme speed, but his pupil had somehow managed to not only evade the Senbon attack but stabbed the attacker in the right shoulder deep enough to cripple him. Zabuza had ticked out at that and shunshin`ed there to kick Sasuke with his full power, throwing him over the lake, only to immedeatly turning to flee. Kakashi had only had the choice of saving his pupil or following Zabuza, which was no choice at all. He had jumped onto the lake, running across the water as fast as he could, and catching the limp Sasuke in the last possible moment. Zabuza had been gone by then, but the (obviously fake) Hunter Nin had been trying to limp away while loosing a lot of blood from the stab wound Sasuke had inflicted, so Kakashi had motioned Naruto to capture the traitor. Which 5 Kage Bunshin had done rather easily.

He sighed while lying down. Why did his team lack a medic Nin? He had only received basic field treatment lessons, enough to ensure that their captive would survive, but not enough to treat Sasukes multiple crushed ribs and broken right arm. So he had to inject him with the (only dose!) Emergency Serum. That would save his life, and most likely career, and heal his wounds within a few days but it would also haywire his chakra system for at least a week, if not more. And they still had to protect their client, and now also themselves, from Zabuza and whoever else this Gateau had hired. He sighed again, nothing he could do now, and as their opponent was wounded as well he had to get his reserves back up NOW.

And so he fell asleep with practiced ease.

Outside Naruto (the original one) and Sakura were sitting on a bench eating the rice balls Tsunami had brought them, while Narutos clones stood guard. Sakura had been rather quiet since their Sensei had brought the unconscious Sasuke into his room, which Naruto enjoyed. He was worried enough already without Sakura adding to it. Just as he swallowed his last rice ball she suddenly spoke.

"Naruto, I...I am sorry for being so useless." her voice was very quiet and almost toneless. "If I had been an asset to the team, maybe Sasuke would not …..would not have..." she swallowed a sob and trailed off, her vibrant green eyes full of pain and tears. Damn, what was he supposed to do now?

"Sakura-chan, we were facing someone who is as strong as Kakashi-sensei. Even if you had been stronger, it would not have helped. But I, and you, WILL train and get stronger! We will protect Tazuna and his family until Sasuke is back up again, and together we will win next time!" His trademark enthusiasm actually seemed to help this time, as Sakura stopped crying silently, wiped her eyes and nodded. Sasuke had told her to be a better team-player. Well, now was her chance! She would do her utmost best not to disappoint her crush!

"Do you 2 need anything else?" Tsunamis voice sounded from inside the house. "More food perhaps? Or something to drink?" Tazunas Daughter had been almost too friendly the whole time they had been here. "Something to drink would be great, thank you!" Naruto shouted back. Sakura shook her head, but said nothing. After all, Naruto was her teammate, and she had promised to treat him better. Seeing his clones were doing all the work he had earned a little leeway anyway. Especially since he had not asked her out for almost a week.

And so they spent their first day in Wave.

* * *

><p>Early morning the next day Kakashi entered the room where his 2 conscious Genin were taking their breakfast. He had just checked on their captive and found him still unconscious, as was Sasuke but aside from protecting him from assassins there was nothing he could do for his pupil right now anyway. "Naruto, Sakura, after you finish breakfast I will show you some exercises that you will devote yourself to. Your clones, Naruto, will still patrol the area, but 5-6 should do, as I will patrol too, all the rest of your efforts will go into that training. We need to be ready next time, am I clear?" He sounded very serious, so Naruto just nodded quietly, as did Sakura, instead of shouting his readiness as he would have done normally. "Good, now lets go..."<p>

And off they went to learn to walk on trees. Sakura mastered that within a few hours, Naruto though...caused widespread tree damage.

Kakashi therewhile had begun to ….. check on his captive, including using his Sharingan, and what he found out was rather bad news. Obviously Zabuza had access to support well above what he had expected, if he could muster Kekkei Genkai users like this one. He could hardly wait for him to wake up, as he had a lot of questions...

His chance came roughly 12 hours later, when his captive finally awoke.

Now while he was no master in the art of torture, he DID have the Sharingan, so Haku did not have much chance to oppose him, though it was good that Sakura and Naruto were not here, as he was everything but gentle. After all, this Ninja had attacked his student, and would ahve no doubt attacked him, with the intent to kill, as was to be expected by anyone serving Zabuza. Still, after about one hour he knew what he wanted to know.

He called his pupils for a briefing in the forest where the 2 had practiced tree walking (or in Narutos case tree kicking, but he got better; still Sakuras ability had come as a welcome surprise!).

"Now my pupils, listen well. Our captive goes by the name of Haku. He was an orphan when Zabuza found him and decided to train him because he has a Kekkei Genkai that allows him to manipulate Ice. As the Hidden Mist tends to kill all bearers of a Blood Limit and Zabuza not only did not kill him but trained him he is very devoted to his master." Narutos gaze showed that he could understand that pretty well, as Kakashi had expected, while Sakura looked shocked.

"However I did manage to gain valuable information. Mainly the fact that Zabuza only arrived in Wave with Haku and the Demon Brothers as support. Together with the fact that he was wounded in our fight this gives us at least another week until he will come back to settle this, which no doubt he will. I intend to use this time for training. Naruto you will continue to practice tree walking. Sakura, I will teach you a Genjutsu that allows you to stay hidden. As soon as Sasuke is awake we will adapt to the situation as well as possible without knowing what support Zabuza will bring. Do not be fooled however, I will fight Zabuza. You are not ready to face such an opponent. Also, following Hakus memory, Gateau is dead by Zabuzas hand. Which means we might have to fight whoever manages to gain control of his organization later. That usually takes lots of infighting however, so I do not expect it to be an issue until well after our confrontation with Zabuza. Now off you go."

With that he left the 2 to their training.

Which they did, with all the fervor of young people eager to please.

* * *

><p><em>Wind slowly moved the leaves overhead, rustling sounded from all around, light and darkness shifted, the occasional beam of bright golden sunlight touching the ground marked by the remnants of 2 hours of Taijutsu training, Itachis long black hair surrounded him like a cloak, tiny strands moved by the breeze, his dark blue training clothes spotless, only a few drops of sweat showing in his face. An eleven years old Sasuke leaned slumped against a tree, his face showing dozens small bruises, his clothes dirty, his Sharingan still spinning. <em>

"_Are you satisfied now, little brother? You wanted me to actually spar with you, didn't you? Now you are beaten, out of breath and almost out of chakra and still you did not manage to hit me even once. All the blathering about your goals, virtues and your so called "talent", and still you lose, even when I am only using Taijutsu on you."_

_Sasuke said nothing, but his glare spoke volumes. He had been so sure of his abilities, after all he had activated his Sharingan a full 2 years earlier than Itachi and his focus had been Taijutsu, Obito had told him that Itachis abilities where elsewhere, namely that he was THE Uchiha Genjutsu prodigy, so he SHOULD have been able to at least challenge his brother despite the age difference if Itachi restricted himself to Taijutsu. But no, not even one punch or kick had managed to connect. Yes, he had been able to evade or parry most of Itachis attacks, but still a good 2 dozen had hit him, some throwing him a few meters, and now he was exhausted, his whole body ached, yes, he had lost. Badly. He "hn"ed, both anger and irritation apparent in his face._

"_Little brother, you have been listening too closely to what Obito taught you. Yes, teamwork is important, yes friends are as well. But remember, while he is an Uchiha, he never was as gifted as we are, which formed him into what he now is. All his talk about virtues has clouded your head." Face still impassive he walked towards Sasuke, bending down to put their faces on the same level. His voice was quiet but very intense. "Always remember this, little brother: **Power** is the prime virtue. All other virtues are born out of it. Without it, you cannot achieve anything. Without it, all other virtues are nothing more than the fancy dreams of naive children." _

_He stood again, his gaze saying "Think about it! Hard!" as he shunshin`ed away. Sasuke slumped even deeper, completely defeated..._

_The light dimmed, and he felt like waking up._

* * *

><p>He slowly opened his eyes, just to be greeted with the sight of Naruto and Sakura arguing. <em>Great, at least now I know I am still alive.<em> The thought shot through his head even before he registered that he was in a considerable amount of pain. He grunted, and both his team-mates focused on him.

"Sasuke-kun! You are awake!" Sakura looked and sounded extremely happy and obviously barely managed to restrain herself from hugging him. However she was also rather loud, so Sasuke winced. "Man Sasuke, good to see you waking. I was worried there for a bit." Naruto for once showed great wisdom and spoke quietly. He would teach the blonde a Jutsu for that alone! He strained to speak, but only grunted. "Here Sasuke, drink." Sakura put a small mug to his lips and he eagerly drank. Ah, wonderful. After a few sips he spoke. "How long have I been out? And how did the rest of the fight go?"

Naruto answered him. "About 3 days, Sensei said you should wake up today as the Serum he gave you should have finished healing your bones by now." Sasukes brows lifted. Bones? So the extremely hard impact he remembered had been real. He tried to move and pain shot through his torso and right forearm, so he decided he would rest for a while longer. "We managed to capture a guy masked as Mist Hunter Nin who tried to kill you after you threw your attack at Zabuza, but the big man himself got away. Sorry." At that Sakura intervened. "Sasuke needs to eat and rest for now, Naruto. You can tell him the rest later on." With that she went to get some soup. Sasuke would NOT let her feed him though, so he painfully got himself into a sitting position, realizing that while it was painful he was able to move. More or less. After finishing his soup (by himself! He was almost proud) Kakashi came to check up on him, and seemed relatively satisfied with the healing progress. Still he was commanded to sleep. "Tomorrow we will determine how long it will take until you can start training again. Rest now." And with that he succumbed to fatigue.

The next day had come quickly, Kakashi had been very pleased when Sakura had shown a quick grasp on the Genjutsu and he was sure she would be able to master it until the end of the week. And even Naruto had managed to learn how to walk on trees, now it was time to see what Sasuke would (and if he was honest COULD) do. "Now then, Sasuke. Naruto and Sakura have been training the last 4 days, mostly treewalking, in order to prepare for Zabuzas next actions." At that Sasuke raised a brow. Treewalking was rather hard to learn unless your control was very good. Hearing that Naruto had managed that surprised him. "Well Sensei, I learned treewalking almost a year ago, so..." he trailed of.

"I thought as much, seeing the training that you received. I will teach you waterwalking starting tomorrow, as water is abundant around here, and leave the rest of your training to you 3 for the next few days." Kakashi was not sure Sasukes chakra system would be functional enough for anything new, even waterwalking might prove very hard to learn with that handicap, so leaving him to start it slowly was the best option. He left his pupils to their own to scout again, even if he was pretty sure no one was close enough to them to prove any danger, better safe than sorry.

Left to their own Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke talked for hours, Sasuke carefully probing them to get a feeling regarding which of his many Jutsu might help them the most (he had after all decided that Naruto would get a Bonus one), and catching up to what had happened while he slept. He was sad to hear about Inari, but until they had defeated Zabuza there was nothing he could do to help someone so submerged in despair, so he let it drop. He was very happy though to see that his teammates got along fine now. Maybe his talk with Sakura had been the first step to become friends with them indeed. Even considering his ribs still pained him, he felt pretty good ...

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>Here you go. An early chapter, just for the weekend if you like.

Again I thank my "persistent" reviewers (you know who you are) and ask the rest of you to review. Positive feedback, neutral or negative, all is better than no feedback. Tell me what you think.


	8. Preparations

Another day had passed with Sasuke mainly recuperating (and thinking about what and how to teach his `friends´) and while his ribs and arm did not pain him much any longer, Kakashi had again warned him from doing any Jutsu that needed good fine control, so everything he was doing right now was trying to walk on water. Which due to sporadic control issues in his chakra system proved to be …. challenging. The only reason he was able to ignore most of Narutos snickering was the fact that it would take a year or more until the blonde himself was able to walk on water. He smirked after managing a full 9 steps without sinking in. It seemed it was looking up now...

Naturally that was the exact moment his chakra suddenly and violently spiked, causing him to splash in a rather funny way (for those still dry that was). He sighed as he concentrated to pull himself out of the water by channeling chakra to his legs and feet. This would be taking a while it seemed...

After another 2 hours of grueling (and not to mention wet) exercise, with varying amounts of success, Sasuke sat on a tree trunk looking out over the lake, and relaxed. He had dried himself with a very slow and controlled execution of his "Drying Jutsu" (it seemed mostly all worked as it should, but if his chakra decided to do unexpected things it did so with gusto) and waited for Sakura to bring him the promised food, he was starving (as judging by the sounds his stomach produced so was Naruto, but that wasn't anything new was it?). At least he was getting the hang of it. "Say Sasuke, are you going to teach me that Jutsu you promised sometime today?" The blonde asked in his usual, energetically-excited tone. Sasuke sighed. "Yes. After we both have had something to eat." He stretched a bit, testing the flexibility of his ribs. Almost pain free, nice. He was interrupted by Sakura carrying a large plate with sushi, sauces, Onigiri and grilled fish. Naruto and he did what could be expected of boys and quickly got to it, with Sakura nibbling on her rice ball, watching the 2 dig in.

After disposing their food rather quickly, Sasuke leaned back and looked at his team mates.

"Now, I want something clear from the start. I am not your Sensei, believe me I don't want Kakashi-Senseis job, but he allowed me to nonetheless teach you each fitting Jutsu that I have learned in one way or the other. And for that to work you have to do exactly as I tell you." He waited for them to nod in acknowledgment. "Good, now Sakura, your chakra reserves are abysmal. I estimate them at about a third of mine, and I myself only have slightly above average reserves. So I decided to go with a Jutsu that mostly needs fine control, as your control on the other hand is very impressive." Sakura had hung her head at his judgment, but now slowly regained her composure. A little compliment from her crush seemed sufficient to motivate her. "Now look closely." Sasuke rose and then slowly went through the 3 signs needed to start the Jutsu. Monkey, Monkey, Bird. He held the final sign as he took a deep breath, just to explosively blow out the air he held towards a nearby tree. The air between a few feet in front of Sasuke and the tree looked as if a rotating dustcloud had suddenly appeared, just for it to disappear a moment later, to leave the tree and the ground around it marked by countless small pockmarks. He almost fell over, of course his chakra had chosen this exact moment to spike and he had used about twice the amount of chakra needed and with less than half the usual efficiency. Stupid haywireing...

He regained his breath and started to explain. "It is a C-Class Ninjutsu called "Cutting Dust Barrier" ,I …. borrowed it from a chunin a while ago, that utilizes dust already present in the air to both provide a dust screen and a relatively weak area attack. It relies heavily on the user maintaining control and directing it after actually executing the Jutsu and scales rather strongly regarding its efficiency if your control wavers. Judging your momentary reserves one normal use should deplete around 70-75% of your chakra, so you can both train your control regarding its use and your reserves. Now, you try it..."

As expected Sakura did not have much trouble doing the signs or the Jutsu, aside from being only able to do it once without rest, and so Sasuke went to show Naruto what he had in store for the hyperactive blonde.

"OK Naruto, as you, unlike Sakura, have abysmal control but freaking huge chakra reserves, this Jutsu should do." He ignored Narutos pout and went through the 4 signs of the Sparrowhawk Jutsu, "This is the Sparrowhawk Jutsu, a C-Class Wind Type Ninjutsu. It will provide you with an enormous speed boost as long as you are on open ground, do not execute other Ninjutsu or run our of chakra. Seeing your usual way of attacking and your reserves I'd say it was meant for you." Judging by Narutos expression he had immediately realized the potential of "supercharged" Kage Bunshin, and went on to try his new "toy". With the expected results of him wasting large amounts of chakra (and 7 tries) until he got it to work with roughly half the regular efficiency. Just to promptly run straight into a tree at twice his normal speed. Sasuke smirked. That promised to be fun... And so, while resting and regaining his strength, he kept watching Naruto (and lots of clones) trying to get a grip on the "Sparrowhawk". He laughed a loud belly laugh as 3 of the 9 clones present executed the Jutsu perfectly, just to speed up and run (at thrice their regular speed) into 4 more clones ahead of them, causing them all to vanish with the usual smoke cloud, followed by Naruto shouting at the remaining clones. Ah, how fun was that? He still was unsure about the second Jutsu to teach him, but there would be enough time for that later on. Plus watching Naruto was more fun at the moment anyway.

And with lots of cursing, laughing and pleasant exhaustion their training continued until they were too tired and went back to Tsunamis house to devour massive amounts of food (and ignore the overtly sulking Inari, except for Naruto who did not stop throwing him glances, to the best of their abilities). Overall it had been a good day. Too bad it wouldn't last...

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, in a small but well built and equipped hut close to a mountain top, a scowling Zabuza sat while a masked female clad in a deep blue catsuit and a black cloak slowly removed the tape from his right forearm. The wound seemed closed, only a thin but red scar still visible, but the inspection took another 2 minutes until she spoke. "It is healed well enough, refrain from doing anything strenuous for 2 more days and you are fully up to speed again." The voice was void of any inflection and relatively low for a women. She rose, the light illuminating her half white, half black Mask, and went to leave. Zabuza moved his fingers, and found no pain or restricting feelings left in his arm. He was impressed, that damn lightning Jutsu Kakashi had hit him with had done quite some damage. "Wait. You still owe me another service!" His voice was sharp and commanding, and the woman obeyed by turning around. While her face was covered, her body language clearly said "Lets get this over with". She did not say anything. Ah, how infuriating she could be...<p>

"I need support for my plans in Wave. I am going to be facing Kakashi Hatake and his team, which seemed rather competent so far, and obviously doing that alone would be stupid, as they managed to capture or kill Haku and wound me last time." His teeth gnashed loudly. The sheer nerve! He had spent _years _training Haku and now he was most likely dead. Argh! Where could he find an apprentice so obviously skilled and yet so obedient?

The woman cocked her head to the left. "And what do you expect me to do? You might remember that I am only a moderately skilled fighter. And most of my contacts are not close enough to get here within your intended time frame."

"I know. I expect you to carry this", at that Zabuza drew a small scroll out of his bag, "to Hohiro. And I want you to give me the Warriors Plate you and Orochimaru played around with a few years back." That brought out a reaction. She straightened and the slits of the mask focused on Zabuza. "You are aware of the fact that we did not manage to reproduce it? If it gets damaged in your battle it will be lost. Permanently. Even if the Old Snake was willing to discard it because of his inability to rebuild it, I am not!" Her tone was clearly angry now. How dare he to demand that! This armor was at least 150 years old, probably much older, and had a lot of abilities that she was sure she had not yet discovered, on top of providing excellent protection against Ninjutsu and boosting its bearers strength. Enough for years of research!  
>"You will do as I say." Zabuzas Killing Intent spiked to dangerous levels. "And all debts will be dealt with." He added with a little less coldness in his voice. Damn, why did she have to be in the Swordmans debt! And honorable enough to follow the code regarding them on top of that. Ah fuck it, she would find other things to occupy her mind with... She nodded, opened the safe in the far wall and gave the Warriors Plate, a shoulder guard made of some sort of copperish metal, rather massive and marked by brownish runes, to Zabuza together with the scroll containing her info about the artifact, taking the message scroll the Nukenin wanted delivered scroll instead, and left. No use in delaying, after she had delivered this scroll all debts would be dealt with. And when Zabuza would cross her path the next time, she might have some thing up her sleeve, oh yes...<p>

Smirking she sped northwards.

Zabuza therewhile put the plate on his left shoulder for the first time. After all he had to train with it before he used it in battle. Kakashi and his brats had 3, at the most 4, days left until he would crush them. His evil smile was hidden by the bandages, but still there.

The Copy Nin would never know what hit him...

* * *

><p>Kakashi found his students at the breakfast table, where they chatted and of course consumed lots of food. He had actually come to appreciate the New Sasuke quite a lot. Not only was he a far better teamplayer, as evident in him teaching Jutsu to Sakura and Naruto, no his skills were far more varied and well rounded than that of most Chunin. On top of his Sharingan that was. Yes, he seemed to lack "his" Sasukes Chakra reserves and drive for perfection, but otherwise, as loath as he was to admit it, they all seemed to be on the "good" side of this strange exchange.<p>

"Sasuke, I will start training with you today. We need to see how far your system has recovered, and some Sharingan training seems to be in order as well." His gaze went towards Sakura and Naruto. "You 2 will continue to practice what Sasuke taught you, and it would also be wise for you to scout a bit and get to know the surrounding area. I will leave the exact schedule to you." Witht hat he nodded Sasuke to follow him and left for a nearby clearing.

A few minutes alter they arrived. "Well then Sasuke, first activate your Sharingan." Which his pupil did, and Kakashis assumption proved correct. He had thought that Sasukes last move in the battle with Zabuza had been _too _perfect for him. Now he could see why. His Sharingan had reached the mature level. Late seeing how long he already had it, but seeing the absolute age really early. If he remembered right only Itachi had been younger than Sasuke at reaching a mature Sharingan in the last generation. "Well well, Sasuke. It seems that the battle triggered your Sharingans evolution. You possess a mature Sharingan now. This will no doubt change some of your predictions and the general feel, which is why we will try it to its limit right now." And with that the most grueling training Sasuke could remember began. Kakashi threw hundreds of Shuriken, Kunai, punches and kicks at him, always getting closer and closer to the limits of his predictive ability. Which, he had to admit, had been boosted quite a bit. Not that he had much time enjoying it. While he usually could only see the 3-4 most likely outcomes, and the perfect reaction to them, he now could consider 5 and more ways to counter up to 10 different variations of the same action. So while not actually faster or more precise, it seemed his Sharingan had gotten _deeper _and _broader _in its focus. Which was good, as he would never have managed as long as he did with his old ability.

Still, after almost 2 hours he was beat. Scratch that, he was almost unconscious, and still evading kunai! Kakashi smiled as he saw that Sasuke had picked up the new advantages this quickly. He really hoped they would have at least 2 more days to prepare, because he had rarely seen someone as gifted with the predictive abilities of the Uchihas famed Doujutsu. Yes, this proved to be a VERY interesting development...

But now his pupil would have to rest. He really deserved that, after this performance. And the afternoon would provide enough training time for the team.

Later that day, Sasuke and his team mates trained formations and predicting each others actions in battle. Sakuras new combination of a cloaking Genjutsu and a medium range area attack made her a good ambusher, Narutos prowess with supercharged Bunshin was improving, and Sasukes new abilites fit in nicely. Kakashi was pretty sure they would be ready for the upcoming battle. As long as Zabuza would not come up with too much backup that was...

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><p>Far away, under a rocky ravine with a small, crippled tree growing on it, a rather old but muscular looking, balding Ninja in brown and gray clothing sat against a rock, reading a scroll. His massively bushy brows furrowed, his wrinkly forehead wrinkled even more, his long beard wobbled. So, the brat had finally decided to make his move and try to found a new village. He smiled. It was about time that his one time pupil finally stopped doing the dirty work for little men and started aiming higher again! While Wave was not a location many would choose, it provided all Zabuza needed. Water, seclusion, and most important: a power vacuum. Yes, the next few weeks would prove ….. interesting.<p>

Grabbing his huge, slim sword Hohiro smirked a bloodlusty smirk and went off to join his pupil.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong> Here we go, enjoy! And almost as important: review!


	9. Unexpected Events

The sun rose on the morning of the 10th day of Team sevens „forced holiday" in Tsunamis house, it was a slightly foggy morning, but free of clouds and hence promised to be the first really sunny day of their stay. In short it seemed to be a really pleasant day in the making. Which once again demonstrated that the weather gods (if they existed at all) had a sick sense of humor.

During the breakfast one of Konohas messenger hawks glided through the open window, landing deftly on the table without even touching any of the foodstuff, which caused Kakashi to lift his brow. He swiftly took the small scroll fastened to the hawks left leg, and continued to read it in silence. No amount of questioning looks (or in Narutos case frowning) led to any reaction. Until he "huh"ed, and put the scroll away. Silence stretched. Sasuke was just about to ask, as their Sensei started: "Well, it seems the collection of the Demon Brothers went smoothly. My question regarding any bounties on our other prisoner brought nothing up though. Obviously he was able to keep a very low profile, Mist wasn't even aware of the fact that Zabuza had him as support, much less of any real wrongdoings on his part. They still would like to get their hands on him, but as they are not paying any ransom, I think we will take him with us. Provided we survive." The last part was underscored by his "eye-smile". It still made Sasuke feel …. less than thrilled. While their training had gone rather well so far, and their teamwork improved, facing a A-S Class Nukenin with unknown support was still pretty far down his wishlist. Though, if he thought about it, above facing this worlds Itachi, for one. You had to be grateful for the little things, he supposed. "Well, as we are expecting our ….. unwelcome guests any moment now, we will not continue training today. You will instead patrol the area between Tsunamis house and the coast to the north, while I will take the other side. Do not, under any circumstances, overexert yourselves." He did not add "because that would be stupid", and actually didn't need to. Even Naruto got it. Enemies expected, be at your best and be vigilant!

Which they got to a few minutes (and consumed ricerolls) later.

Kakashi watched his students go, and was worried. What he had not told them was that the scroll had contained 2 other, more troubling, pieces of information. Following that data, all over the elemental countries secluded (but still under surveillance by the 5 Great Villages Anbu-equivalents) living Ninja had managed to disappear from the radar of Konohas, and if their spies were correct, the other villages too. Most had been "found" again rather quickly, and while troubling due to the inability to know what they had done while "out of sight", they did not worry Konoha much. However, a list of 4 A(+) Class Ninja without village association had managed to disappear completely within the last 3 weeks. 2 of them had been affiliated with cloud one time or the other, and seeing Konohas ….. enmity was too soft a word but still, with them that worried his superiors a lot. And him being the former Anbu Captain, they obviously thought he had to worry about that first hand. Damn, sometimes he really envied Gai and his attitude. At least none of them were former Mist Ninja, still, while it was unlikely that they would support Zabuza (not in the least because they were too far away to get here in time or had disappeared long before his clash with the "Demon") it always payed to be prepared. So Kakashi executed the Summoning Jutsu, and ordered Pakku and 4 other of "his" dogs to patrol the area for "foreign" smells and Chakra.

The other information the scroll had told him was that the Chunin Exam would be held in Konoha this year, and pretty soon as well, which meant lots of foreign Ninja loitering around. Damn. That would mean lots of extra work, not even counting Sasukes …... situation and the low but existent probability for someone of the visitors being able to find out about it (or even being responsible for the event!). Ah well, no sense in getting crazy about it now, maybe Zabuza would kill them all...

Yeah, right mindset, Kakashi, he said to himself and got to work.

* * *

><p>Many many miles away, Zabuza had just begun his first major test with his new armor. While he had been training with it for 2 days straight, getting used to the weight and testing how much Chakra was needed to trigger its strength improvement abilities, today Hohiro had arrived. And being able to go all out against his former teacher, and probably the best swordsman Zabuza had ever met, was something else entirely. He was especially interested in its rumored ability to shed most mono-elemental Jutsu below a certain amount of Chakra (like, for example, Water Dragons) like the proverbial water. If that really worked like the rumorsnotes said it would render 80% of Kakashis Jutsu useless, and hence guarantee his victory over the otherwise dangerously competent Ninja. If it did not, he would have to deal with the Ninja of a Thousand Jutsu differently.

Hohiro stood roughly 15m away, his extremely long but only slightly more than a hand wide blade, known as the Mountaincutter, over his right shoulder. With the usual frown on his face, his bushy brows almost fusing into one, his beard wobbling in the wind, he waited for Zabuzas first move.

Zabuza opened up with a quick water bullet, which he followed up by quickly dashing towards his opponent, channeling chakra into his legs, sword and his Shoulder guard. As he was just reaching attack range, he barely managed to dodge Hohiros thrust to the left, just to run into a quickly summoned earthwall, through which he promptly broke (and with much less resistance than expected, nice!) without slowing down much. He spun with full force, and Hohiro had to block this time. Their blades met, Zabuzas Kobikiri Honcho ringing, Hohiros Mountaincutter sparkling with Raiton chakra, their respective strengths seemingly equal. Zabuza loved it. Hohiro had always been stronger than him by a fair margin (and he was already considered insanely strong for the usually far more speed oriented Ninja) but the armor did what it was supposed to do and leveled that advantage rather nicely.

Swords clashed and rang, Jutsu were executed, creating torrents of water, bolts of lightning and rocks galore, and were evaded, countered and broken, it was glorious! _This _was what he lived for!

After about 5 minutes Hohiro jumped out of range, digging the tip of his sword deeply into the ground, and shook his slightly sweated beard. He commented with a silent but deep voice: "Hmm, that thing seems to give you quite the edge, my pupil." His brow furrowed. "But don't get too full of yourself, I am still holding back my real heavy hitters." Which Zabuza believed him. While never one for "soft" training, Hohiro hated to waste potential. And he HAD said potential. So he grinned and removed the bandages covering half of his face, which made the wide grin visible. He would show the world what he was capable of, and stop hiding under that garment.

"Then we are ready. Lets rest for an hour or 2 and then we will teach Kakashi what it means to clash with 2 of the top 3 Swordsmen of the world at once." Hohiro smirked back. "I hoped you would say that. And I have a little surprise for you as well..." With that he drew 2 obviously freshly made headbands sewn to blue-black cloth out of his back pocket...

* * *

><p>The patrol had gone well (translation: event-less) so far, the day become as beatiful as it ahd promised to, and it was time for their noon break. Which they decided to hold on some smooth rocks with a good view to the sea.<p>

Naruto had just gotten back from retrieving fresh water from the nearby rivulet when Sasukes Sharingan, which he had kept active all the time, picked up something. Something insanely fast, coming directly at him from out of the rocks over there. He knew exactly where he had to be to evade it, but as much as he strained to follow his Eyes "suggestions", and he strained a lot, he was far too slow. He just managed to see a …. curtain? Of lightning coming at him before it hit him fully on the upper body. The pain was excruciating, his vision seemed to be overloaded with light (which was impossible! His subconscious insisted) just to go black exactly as the pain subsided enough for him to realize that he was flying through the air. Again. He tried to roll in the air and land on his feet, but not being able to see was...detrimental to his efforts. He was just about to scream his frustration, as he landed. With a short "thud" blackness claimed him.

Naruto and Sakura frantically tried to get below Sasukes flying body, but he flew through the air almost as fast as the attack, which they had not even _seen _before it hit their teammate, had done. Sasuke landed with a thud, and seemed out. One of Narutos clones got close enough to see that Sasukes eyes were bleeding, before a large, heavily muscled man with a sword over 2m long appeared out of the earth, grabbed Sasukes body, and vanished into the earth again just as the clone reached the spot where their friend had fallen.

A few hundred meters away Kakashi was not so surprised, his Dogs had told him of Zabuzas imminent arrival just about 20 seconds ago, by a large sword flying over his head, as he easily dodged it. What _did _surprise him was that the Nukenin, who once again appeared on his swords handle, seemed to have changed his style of clothing. Gone was the bandage over his (smirking) lower face, as well as the ridiculous arm warmers. Instead he wore a rather blocky looking copperish shoulder guard over the left shoulder, sturdy looking forearm protectors and a headband...Kakashi had never seen in his life on his forehead. It showed something alike a rather big, straight sword over a stylized wave. Strange...

He was just about to initiate the expected taunting contest, when Zabuza launched himself from the sword, gripped it and started a charge towards him. He did not have enough time to uncover his Sharingan and react appropriately, so he instead executed a quick Hosenká and jumped back, quickly opening his sealed eye. Just to be shocked by Zabuza not even trying to evade but … plunging through the fireballs, obviously unscathed. And his Sharingan picked up that there were some sort of gloving runes on that shoulder guard. Dammit. He kept evading and firing smaller Jutsu of various sorts at the swordsmen, but aside from slowing him they did not show any effect. And he did not want to exhaust himself with "big" Jutsu until he knew who and what the Nukenin had sent after his pupils.

Just as he had made up his mind to break the engagement for now and look after them, someone rose out of the earth next to Zabuza, Sasukes limp body on his shoulder. The second Ninja was old, balding and bearded, yet still very muscular and broad shouldered, and wore the same headband Zabuza did, in addition to Sasuke he had a sword with an even longer, yet far slimmer, blade than Kobikiri Honcho on his shoulder. Shit.

Zabuza stopped his advance and smirked. "Well Kakashi, it seems you have 2 choices now. Fight and watch your pupils getting killed, starting with the little Uchiha here, followed by dying yourself at our blades, or to surrender to our terms and leave Wave." His voice was more restrained, and confident in an almost cultured way, than Kakashi had expected, and even if it would cost him his status, there was no real choice here. Only trash aborts a mission, but those who leave their friends to die are far worse than trash. He slumped a bit, covered his Sharingan again, and said: "A very well executed plan. You have me beat, I surrender under the condition that you do not harm my pupils."

The man next to Zabuza smirked. "See, told ya." His old but strong voice commented. Zabuza simply nodded towards him. Hohiro had a better grasp on the formalities, so he would let him handle the rest. And if Kakashi should attack, well...

"Now then, lets get to it. Aside from giving us Haku back (At that Zabuza smiled a true smile of happiness, his pupil was alive!), what we want from you is to serve as a witness to the Lesser Village Charta. Articles 4 and 6 to be precise. You being a Elite Jounin of Konoha that should be no problem legally speaking. After that you will leave Wave as quickly as possible." Kakashi frowned, and drew out his regulation book, quickly skimming it. He had never been one to memorize all the regulations. Hohiro waited politely. Or at least without obvious scowling. Kakashi kept reading, and was …. surprised to say the least.

Article 4 covered the "legal" founding of a new Lesser Village by at least 2 Jounin intend on founding it and one foreign Jounin or higher as witness, Article 6 covered the official acknowledgment of a newly founded Lesser Village by one of the 5 Great Villages, which granted it rather more legitimacy than simply founding one and hoping for the best, and needed 2 Jounin of said Greater Village, or one Elite Jounin or Kage. Zabuza and this …. other guy intended to found their own village! So that was why he had never even heard of their headband symbols. His brow rose.

"So, it seems you brought yourself up to speed. Good." Hohiros voice then got more … official.

"I, Hohiro Yamamoto hereby declare that I am willing to join and co-found the newly founded village of Tsurugigakure no Sato (Village Hidden in the Sword) and serve under the first Namikage, and primary founder, Zabuza Momoshi. Will you, Kakashi Hatake of Konohagakure no Sato bear witness to this and agree to full acknowledgment and a peaceful opening of relations between Konohagakure no Sato and our village in Konohas name?"

Zabuza smirked at Hohiro declaring him the First Namikage. Granted, it would still be a lot of work until "his" village was a village in more than its name, but it would be _his _alone. And Gateaus scum would prove both a good method to get the locals on his side and provide him with much needed funds.

Kakashi paled a little, but still answered. "Yes, in the name of Konoha, I bear witness to all this and agree to acknowledge your village."

And just like that, the "Village of the Sword" was founded.

* * *

><p>Kakashi had collected the very worried (and a bit ashamed) Naruto and Sakura after making sure Sasuke was alive and, aside from bleeding eyes (with, as it seemed, still active Sharingan...) and unconsciousness out of which he would not wake, well, and left as soon as he could, with a scroll of the "Namikage" for the Third in his pocket. Who would have expected that? Not only had Zabuza "drawn" another Jounin (or better) Ninja out of his pocket when he needed to, no his newly founded village was now officially acknowledged by Konoha, which made Nami no Kuni their domain legally speaking, and had another High Chunin to Jounin member, with a Kekkai Genkai no less, in Haku. Great. He was sure he would never hear the end of it that all of this had happened under his nose (and with his consent!). Still, priority was to get Sasuke to a Medic, and <em>fast. <em>So he continued top speed towards Konoha, the worried eyes of his students on Sasuke...

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong> And the first "major" divergence is here. A new village, with our beloved "Demon" as Kage. I hope you like it.

This more or less ends the first "arc" of the story, next we will have the (immediate) ramifications of the new Village, and what exactly is "off" with Sasuke. Followed soon by the Chunin Exam Arc.

Please review! I really like feedback, you know? And the more the better!


	10. Deliberations

**AN: **Yes, unusual for me the AN is up front this time.

Bear with me though, its quite important.

First I want to point out that the "Original Inspiration" for the fic, and hence large parts of the Prologue, was provided by the short LZ0291 posted on Deviantart. Credit where it is due, now that I know, the prologue has been edited to show the proper credit as well.

Of course you may point people to my story once you have put up your own version. More readers for both of us cannot be a bad thing, can it?

Also, as my description sadly seemed to be sub-par (as evident by me receiving a few questions regarding it) so let me clarify: The Symbol of Sword looks as follows: put a stylized breaking wave (open side to the left) about the size of Konohas swirl at the center of the forehead protector, then apply a straight sword over (not above/below, but ON) it. The swords tip and hilt are outside the wave, the rest overlaps/is located inside. I hope any confusion is now redeemed. ;)

Now enjoy the chapter, and of course review as much as humanly possible!

* * *

><p>A very exhausted team 7 arrived at Konohas main gate roughly 6 hours later. They had used some endurance-boosting soldier pills to be able to make it this fast, but still Kakashi feared that they might have taken too long. Sasukes eyes had ceased to bleed in small rivers, but from time to time tiny droplets still fell out of the deep red orbs that, though he was still unconscious, opened from time to time to display slowly spinning Tomoe. What the heck was wrong with his students Sharingan? Even after being friends with an Uchiha and having said friends Sharingan, Kakashi had never even once heard of a similar predicament.<p>

He only nodded to the guards, turned to Naruto and Sakura, and said:" get rest. I will bring Sasuke to the hospital and send someone to get you if anything changes." His students had to be even more tired than he thought, as neither protested much, and especially Sakura looked completely beat.

And so they split up.

After having handed Sasukes prone body to a Medi-Kunoichi and giving her a short summary of what had happened to her newest patient, Kakashi quickly went to the Hokages tower. No sense in delaying the bad news after all. Konoha needed to decide soon on how to act on the situation his defeat on Zabuzas hand and subsequent actions had wrought. He sighed as he entered the antechamber, nodding to the administrative Kunoichi, and went in. He could not for the sake of it remember the last time he had messed up that much on a non personal level.

As he entered the Hokage took one glance at his face (well, the visible part anyway) and closed his eyes, sighing. "What is it Kakashi? You look like Gai just beat you on a fight with you wearing his spandex as the wager..."

"Nothing so … personal I am afraid. It might be better if you call the council in, Hokage-sama. There's big trouble afoot..." The Hokage lifted his bushy brows far enough for them to vanish beneath the brim of his hat. Kakashi asking for the council to assemble? That was …. troubling. Very troubling. Only a major threat to Konoha could have brought the lackluster, entirely non bureaucratic Ninja to do that. He was already worried. And so he went to summon it immediately.

"Now before they arrive, give me the rundown..." Which Kakshi did.

At roughly the same time Sasuke had just been put into a OP room. The leading Medi-Kunoichi entered, and started with a simple diagnostic Jutsu. Just to find it ….failing was to hard a word, but delivering only vague results. What the hell had happened with the boys eyes? She needed to get a better look at his chakra coils, and probably more info regarding the Sharingan than was in the medical files. So she sent for the closest branch member Hyuga and dispatched a runner to the Hokage.

This seemed to be something BIG...

* * *

><p>Roughly 20 minutes after he had summoned them the Council was assembled, and all of them looked …. almost alarmed. Not surprisingly, if Sarutobi was honest, as he had not called for an emergency summon in years. He put his pipe away. "This meeting has been called on the explicit wish of Elite Jounin Kakashi Hatake, so lets not waste time. Kakashi?" He gestured his most famous Ninja to begin.<p>

"Ahem, well." Kakashi seemed a bit taken aback by having to speak in front of the whole council, but he reigned himself in pretty quickly, straightened and began."As you all know my teams mission was to protect the bridge builder Tazuna on his trip back to Wave. As it became obvious pretty fast he had lied to us regarding the mission parameters. Not only was he the target of a wealthy and influential local crime lord by the name of Gateau, no this man had sent a squad of missing Nin under the leadership of Zabuza Momoshi after him." At that Koharu "Hmph`ed".

"Sasuke managed to single handedly capture the Demon Brothers as they tried to ambush us on our way to wave, which is where I got the basic information on our clients …. lies as well as about Zabuza killing this Gateau guy in a fit of anger. However shortly before arriving in Wave, Zabuza himself attacked us, I fought him to a standstill and Sasuke interfered which provided me with the needed distraction to wound him. However Zabuza had another Ninja as support, whom Sasuke managed to wound grievously when he tried to interfere by attacking him due to his Sharingan reaching mature status."

At that most people present looked impressed, except for the Hokage of course as he had already received a "short" version of the story. So their "imported" Uchiha had become even more valuable.

Kakashi continued his report. "This caused Zabuza to interfere. He managed to wound Sasuke and subsequently, due to the rest of the team trying to save Sasuke, to flee. I was unable to get medical support, so I injected Sasuke with the Emergency Serum and brought him to our clients house, where we spent the next few days preparing for the inevitable return of our opponents." He sighed. "However what we did not expect was Zabuza to pull another Jounin class Ninja out of his hat, who knocked Sasuke out cold with an unknown lightning attack. The 2 then presented me with the choice of seeing him and my other pupils killed followed by having to face 2 Jounin at once, in Zabuzas case somehow able to shed smaller Jutsu like water, or to surrender to their terms." At that all present elders glared at him. Obviously the loss of one Elite Jounin and 3 Genin was lower on their priority list than saving face for Konoha. Not that surprising, really, Sarutobi mused. But sad nonetheless. Silence stretched for a few moments.

"And these terms were...?" Homaru drawled.

"Well, they were the ratification of the Lesser Village Charta points 4 and 6." The silence that followed could have been cut with a Kunai. Kakashi quickly continued. "The newly arrived Ninja introduced himself as Hohiro Yamamoto, and declared that he was co-founding the Village of Tsurugigakure no Sato under the first Namikage Zabuza Momoshi, demanded the prisoner back and me to acknowledge the village and bring this", at this he withdrew the small scroll he had been asked to carry and gave it to the third, "to you." He sighed. "As it was the only way to save my team, I obliged." If they wanted to demote him he would not object.

"Let me get this straight", Koharu said quietly. "You opened peaceful relations with a newly founded village led by a known Nukenin on an island that could block most of our sea access, just to save your pupils?" The contempt in the old womans voice was clear.

"And now we have to deal with a possible threat as close as Wave, one steered by the "Demon of the Mist" no less? What were you thinking?" Homaru piped in.

"That will be enough." The Hokages voice was stern and firm. "No matter if we agree with Kakashis decision or not, it is done. Water under the bridge so to speak. Now we need to focus on the situation at hand. Thoughts?" The table got silent once more, while his advisers thought and pondered options. Or at least pretended to be pondering.

"As I see it, we do not have many options." Koharus voice was almost gruff. "We can either honor the agreement, at least officially, or have to take action immediately. We cannot allow a potential enemy to gather his strength that close to our border, so my suggestion would be sending a full elimination squad of 12 Anbu of high Chunin Level at least, and Gai or Kakashi if he is willing to redeem his …. failure as the leader to deal with "Sword"." She leaned back, steepling her fingers. Her expression clearly showing that she would prefer this solution quite clearly.

"While It is true that Zabuza has a less than sterling reputation", Homaru spoke up, "He has rebelled against an obviously crazy Kage that decided butchering his own Ninja without any cause was a good idea. Seeing the location of his new village between us and Mist can prove very valuable indeed, as we can rest assured that he will never ally with them. If we can assure an enmity between Sword and Cloud as well, we could gain a very valuable puffer between us and our 2 most …. urgent enemies." Seeing Stones recent weakness, he was right, Sarutobi mused. Though he would honestly never have expected him to propose a rather ... peaceful solution. "If after we have established relations it should ever become necessary, we can use the knowledge that he founded his village by utilizing the funds of a killed client to undermine his legal standing." His face showed little of his thoughts, but Sarutobi was sure he had at least 2 less … sterling plans to utilize Sword already in the works. That was more along the lines of his expectation.

"Before we decide anything", Koharu piped in, "We should clarify what we know about the Ninja Sword consists of right now. We all know Zabuza, but what about this "Haku" boy, and this Hohiro? Also, what is in the Scroll he sent you"

Sarutobi sighed. "I have little more information about Haku than what Kakashi already provided. A very skilled young Ninja, High Chunin level overall with some Anbu-alike skills, with a Kekkai Genkai that allows him to manipulate Ice and an absolutely incorruptible devotion towards Zabuza due to him rescuing the boy from Mists purge at a young age. I think he will be the foundation of Swords Hunter Nin, if they survive long enough." He took a deep swig out of his pipe. "Now Hohiro Yamamoto, if he is who he says he is, is most likely the last surviving member of the Tora-Yamamoto, a small clan that lived nomadically somewhere in the mountains between what today is Stone and the westernmost outcrops of Cloud up until the First War." He took a look at a small brownish book and continued. "The clan had a High C or low B Class Kekkei Genkai, depending on who you ask, that allowed all of them to combine Earth and Lightning Affinities, many achieving a combination of the 2 granting them the unique Metal Elemental Affinity. Controlling and manipulating Metal for a sword-wielding clan proved to be ... rather useful, but the downside of their Bloodline was the utter inability to execute any Fire, Water or Wind Jutsu. Still, it made them somewhat famous back then. The clan was mostly destroyed in the First Great Ninja War, by being alternately betrayed by Cloud and Stone to the other. All info we have is second to third hand at best, but if it is correct a Hohiro Yamamoto served in that war as a Sword Master, which would make him at least 85 years old. Even a mediocre Ninja could become very skilled indeed over such a long amount of time, and following Kakashis report he seems unnaturally hale and strong for his age."

After this rather long speech he leaned back and waited for the replies that had to come.

"So, the newly founded village already has 2 Kekkei Genkai and is led by the second or third most powerful Water User we know. Great." The gaze Koharu sent towards Kakashi was withering.

"Can we risk letting them build on that? Even considering that they might become a shaky ally?"

At that the whole table seemed to go into "deep thought mode" again.

"You still have not answered my second question." Koharu urged on.

"It is a proposal for an alliance. Obviously the Namikage is aware of some of our concerns and took the initiative by proposing this as soon as possible." The council elders fumed at that. The "Kage" of a newly founded 3-man village approaching the Hokage instead of waiting to be approached. The nerve!

After thinking about it for a minute or 2 the Hokage spoke up again. "We will open normal relations with Sword and fully acknowledge it. But we will also keep an eye on them. I will not let the fact that they might be exactly what we need right now and have proposed an alliance blind us to the possibility of betrayal. Koharu, you will assemble a 3 man team to send there to execute the negotiations and find out if they are genuine in their wish for an alliance. The final decision will be made once they return. Dismissed."

As the elders filed out, Homaru with a rare smirk as for once he was in total agreement with the third, Kakashi sighed in relief. It seemed he would not have to suffer any too dire consequences this time...

Just as he had finished that thought, he felt quite some killing intent from the Hokage. Gulping, he turned around. "Kakashi, let me be clear. I would not have expected you to abandon your pupils, but seeing the …. special situation with Sasuke you should have called for backup once it was clear that Zabuza was your opponent. This result is NOT what I need right now." The lines in the old mans face were deeper and more pronounced than Kakashi remembered. "I understand, Hokage-sama."

"Good. Now, what exactly is wrong with Sasuke?"

"I do not know yet, after he was hit with the unknown Jutsu he fell unconscious, which he stayed no matter what I tried to wake him. Strangely his Sharingan seems active though. I am worried." The last part was almost a whisper. "He is in the hospital right now, but I don't think the regular medics know more than I do …..." he trailed off.

"I will send for some MedNin that have worked with the Uchiha before. I hope we wont need to start looking for … more competent help though." Translation: for Tsunade. His angry and spirited former pupil was just what he did _not_ need right now. "Now go to Sasuke. Inform me once you know more."

With that Kakashi left.

* * *

><p>Kakashi had been standing close to the door to the OP room Sasuke was being treated in for almost an hour before an elderly Medi-Kunoichi stepped out, removing her face mask, and signaling him to come with her. After they arrived in a waiting area, she brushed through her brown-gray hair, and looked him in the eyes.<p>

"Well, let me be blunt. We have no idea what exactly is wrong with Sasuke. I have treated wounded Sharingan in my time, but I never even once saw one that failed to deactivate once its bearer was unconscious. Even worse, there is some kind of unusual chakra concentration flowing through the Tenketsu around his eyes that seems to be lightning aligned." She checked if Kakashi was up to speed so far, which he seemed, so she continued. "Now what I can do is make an educated guess on what happened. It is clear by now that Sasuke does possess a rather strong Lightning Affinity, which combined with the unknown Jutsu that hit him has caused Lightning Chakra to flood his Sharingan instead of simply dissapating. Normally this would either destroy it or be channeled out of it pretty soon, the Uchiha Kekkei Genkai is rather robust after all, but in this case something in his eyes seems to be...for lack of a better term _feeding _on this chakra. I do not know if it haywired completely and keeps him unconscious or if he is just unable to wake due to another effect of the Jutsu that hit him, all I can say is that there is no purely medical reason for his status."

At that Kakashi interrupted. "Are you telling me you cannot do anything for him?" He sounded rather alarmed.

"No. I was just explaining the situation. Now as far as we can see we have 3 options. First we could call for a branch Hyuga and let him seal most of the Tenketsu around Sasukes eyes. This would stop the unnatural chakra flow and cause him to wake if his Sharingan is what keeps him unconscious by shutting it down. For a while, my guess is around 2-4 hours, he would not be able to see at all, but the chances for any permanent damage are slim. It will however interrupt whatever is going on right now, which might cause ... unexpected side effects. Second we could simply apply supportive Medi-Jutsu around his eyes and hope to boost their natural ability to recover more quickly. This could however increase the risk of further Chakra overload. Or we simply wait it out. Again, he seems to be neither in pain nor danger, just ….. out. Maybe its a relatively natural part of his Sharingans evolution or self protection, who knows..." She trailed off.

"The only other option I see would be to get Tsunade here. She almost HAS to know more than we do. Which however will take time. Whatever is to be done though, the decision is yours, as you are both his Captain and the only other bearer of the Sharingan we have."

And with that she returned to her duties and left Kakashi alone to ponder his students fate...

* * *

><p>And in a hidden, dark place deep below Konoha, lording over a double row of kneeing ROOT Members, Danzo pondered the new situation, especially Swords fate, as well. And smirked.<p> 


	11. Changing Circumstances

Kakashi stood on the roof of Konohas Hospital, deep in thought, as he had been doing for hours, when the first envoy of Leaf to Sword left the village. He watched them speed of into the distance, wondering if Tenzo was leading the team or not. In short, he did everything even remotely valid to distract his mind from the crucial decision he had to make regarding Sasukes condition. It was bad enough that someone else had to decide for the boy, but he had only the most basic medical knowledge and whatever was happening to his pupil was confusing the medical "pros" as well. Damn that Hohiro and his stupid attack! After another 20 minutes of frantic thinking without coming to any even remotely clear decision, he decided to trust the Sharingan to come out on top at the end (translation to do what he did best: nothing) and went back in to tell the medics to simply leave Sasuke to heal for himself. Which of course did not mean he would not pray for his pupil, who knew, it might actually be useful...

Therewhile Hayate Gekko led his team of "envoys" (translation Anbu Special Jounin disguised by being _without _disguise) towards Wave. He would not have expected to get a diplomatic mission any time soon, but obviously his status as the best swordsman Konoha had at the moment, and hence probably more respect shown to him by their new "allies", made it imperative for him to go, as the evaluation of Swords potential and power were the primary goal of this "visit". Just his luck then, well at least that might just prevent the Chunin exams from being dumped into his lap again... He sighed, and nodded his team to move faster. No sense in wasting time, or he might get his usual summer cough before the mission was over.

Skillfully avoiding their attention a lone Anbu with a white, blue striped, Weasel mask followed them...

* * *

><p>2 Days passed without any incident in Konoha, and Sakura sat at Sasukes bed as she and Naruto had alternatingly done since they had woken from their fatigue (and Soldier pill) induced sleep roughly 26 hours ago. Her crush lay motionless, only his steady, slow breaths showing that he was alive at all, his black hair far less tousled than usual, white bandages covering his eyes. Just as she wanted to sigh yet again, Naruto opened the door to the room in his usual, loud and enthusiastic way, and entered. "Hey Sakura-chan! Anything new?" He lowered himself onto the second chair in the room, putting his arms on the backrest and laying his head on said arms, looking at her. "No. Poor Sasuke is still out. Are you sure the Hokage does not know where Tsunade-hime is right now?" Her face clearly showed her concern, in addition to tiredness born out of 6 hours "Sasuke-Guard-Duty". Kakashi had told them that Tsunade, the legendary Slug Princess, was allegedly the only Medic Nin capable of actually understanding and hence treating what was wrong with their friend. Which should have led to a search, if one asked Sakura. Sadly, nobody had.<p>

"Yep. The Old Man really does not know, and he said that as soon as she heard that Konoha was looking for her she would go into hiding. Still, he promised me that if Sasuke does not wake up by tomorrow evening, he would allow us to search her out." While Naruto did not particularly like the idea of searching for an old hag, Sannin or not, he would do it in the blink of an eye if it helped Sasuke. As judging by her expression would Sakura.

"Now its my turn, so you can go catch some sleep, Sakura-chan." He smiled his beaming smile, trying to project an aura of "He will be alright, see I am not concerned at all". Which had the expected effect. Namely none.

Still, Sakura stood and went to leave the room. "Immediately send me a Kage Bunshin if he wakes, don't forget!" She reminded the orange clad blonde for the 3rd time in their watch. Jeez, as if he would forget that, after all it was important, not like some other stuff...

And so their "Guard Duty" went on as event-less as it had been the past 2 days...

* * *

><p>Therewhile the Hokage had called Kakashi into his office, as well as Kurenai, Azuma, Gai and Ibiki.<p>

They stood more or less at attention while he lighted his pipe. He took a small pull of smoke, then spoke, his pipe in his left. "I have called you all to determine our course of action regarding Sasukes …., predicament. As you all know the Chunin Exams will start in 10 days, which means the other villages Chunin and will arrive within the next few days. We cannot allow our "prodigy" to show weakness once they are here, especially seeing that following our sources Suna will send all 3 children of the Kazekage." At that brows rose. That could be taken as an immense sign of trust towards Konoha. If one looked at it friendly. If not it might signify trouble, and a lot at that. "Now, while an all out search for Tsunade will not help as she would realize we were looking for her and go to ground, and Kakashi has decided that out of the alternatives our Medics presented doing nothing was the best," at that Kakashi looked somewhat ashamed, and the other Jounin eyed him with amusement as his laziness was legendary, "we did receive some info claiming she was near the northern border of Fire Country, which probably is as close as we can expect her to get any time soon. So, you two", he mentioned for Kakashi and Gai, "Will go and get her here to check Sasuke. Give her this if she refuses." With that he handed Kakashi a small yellowish book that had a lock on its cover. "And tell her she will not get the key until she has done what she could for Sasuke. You will leave as soon as this conversation is over." His voice was full of authority.

He took a deep pull. "Now, as we have no idea at all where the "development" of Sasukes Sharingan, if it is one at all that keeps him unconscious, will lead, you two," he nodded at Azuma and Ibiki, "will search the Uchiha Library for any hint on something similar. As you are no Uchiha you will not have access to their technique-scrolls, but their history files are open for outsiders since the massacre and should be helpful enough to find out if anything similar has happened or if it is something unique to the "Other Realities" Uchiha." He sighed. "I know this might take days, but still, be torough. It is our only option for now." He took another pull.

"I would have preferred to leave you more time, but I need your assessments now. Are your pupils able to participate in the Exams?" At that all present Jounin Sensei nodded, some with more vigor than others, but all did. "Good. In that case, dismissed!" And with that Kakashi and Gai left with top speed, while Ibiki and Azuma simply walked out the door. Kurenai stayed though. The Third lifted a brow. "Yes?" He drawled.

"Hokage-sama, I have researched the … occurrences mentioned in the reports you gave me, and I found no hints at all that they were powerful enough to explain the mentioned results. At least not using Genjutsu." As his local specialist discarded his assumptions, the Hokage slumped a bit. It would have been his preferred explanation, but alas, things were never easy. "Thank you, Kurenai. That will be all." She nodded and walked out of the room, graceful as ever.

Seemed he would have to keep looking for the explanation on the unaligned Ninja's disappearance, in addition to a solution for his "Sasuke problem" and organizing the Chunin Exams. Work for 2 younger men, but noone to shoulder it except him.

And so ,with creasing brows, the old and exceedingly overworked Hokage went back to work, his pipe going out unnoticed.

* * *

><p><em>Sasuke stood atop the largest building in the Uchiha District, the tower of the main meeting hall. Wind gusted, thunder rumbled, almost the entire sky was filled with crisscrossing bolts and chains of lightning. The staccato of light from varying directions and darkness made the world switch from bright white light to pitch darkness, changing familiar shapes by deepening the shadows their forms produced, sharpening their edges in the flickering light. Sasuke took deep breaths of the energy-filled, yes even overflowing, air, enjoying the storm pure, wild LIFE and POWER with all his senses. <em>

_It was Wonderful. _

_His Sharingan plotted the path of every large, windswept drop of rain that came towards him, and spinning, jumping and twisting, he evaded them all. Yet there were large enough spaces where none fell, but the margin was dwindling, it was getting harder every second. He was sweating profoundly, his hair dripping drops of sweat towards the drops of rain he was evading, some spins sending little torrents of sweat outwards. With a huge crack of thunder lightning struck the metal rod on the roof above him, the sonic boom blasting all drops away within roughly 10 meters around the tower and throwing Sasuke out of synch. He crashed onto the wet floor, panting and with a stingy, high pitched noise in his ears. He shook his head, and shortly wondered how he had gotten into training on a high building while a storm raged. Then he remembered. He had made a bet with his cousin Kato Uchiha that he could evade every drop of water of the oncoming storm for at least 5 minutes, which now, while halfway deaf from the sonic boom and quite exhausted from his "training" sounded like a much worse idea to the twelve year old Genin than it had an hour ago. He rose, his wet hair hanging down almost like Itachis used to do (though of course far less perfectly) and went for the door. From the corner of his Sharingan he saw a triplet of lightning bolts circling each other, then spinning inward and fusing in the sky above and coming towards him, all at the speed of lightning (quite literally). Oh Sh..._

_Was the last half-thought before blackness claimed him._

_From the safety of a nearby house a white-robed figure, its face mostly covered by the shadow thrown by a wide hood, watched as the tower was blown to pieces, the explosion rocking the whole district, crashing windows in the buildings nearby and setting fire to the meeting hall. The shadowed but visible mouth with the short, blond beard below it smiled a wicked little smile..._

* * *

><p>Sasuke woke with a little yell, as if something had startled him awake. Another, more articulated and slightly more quiet, "What the hell?" followed once he realized that he could not see anything, and his hands quickly discovered that bandages were covering his eyes.<p>

"Sasuke!" A joyous shriek sounded from close by, with Sakuras unmistakable voice and inflection. "Please, stay calm. Your eyes are bandaged because of the side effects of the Jutsu that knocked you out. Do you want something to drink?" At that remark he realized how thirsty he was, and the jolt of adrenaline ebbed slightly. He agreed with a hoarse voice, and something was put to his lips. Ah, the joy of cool water, heaven! He drank slowly, savoring the cool liquid as much as he could. Still, the cup/glass/whatever was empty soon enough, and he leaned back into the pillow. He remembered, that insanely fast curtain of lightning coming towards him, pain and white light, then blackness. Thanks, Sharingan, for another perfectly conserved, unpleasant memory. He jolted, his Eyes! "Sakura, what is the matter with my eyes?" His voice sounded panicked. "Are they hurt? Will I recover?"

"Well, you were unconscious for about 3 days, with the Medics unable to pinpoint the reason, but your Sharingan was active the whole time, so they assumed it was because of some kind of Chakra overload or your Sharingan evolving, or both. I will call a medic-Nin, and we'll see." With that he heard her move away from his location, a door opening, and quick steps. So, his Sharingan had done weird things. He had never heard of one staying active while its bearer was unconscious, but he was still relieved (enormously so) that he was not blind. He hoped. And prayed. To whatever god he could pull out of his head.

Quick steps came towards his location, and shortly after that, an elderly sounding female voice spoke up.

"Calm down, young man. I will now remove the bandages on your eyes, but you have to keep them closed until I say so, OK?" He nodded, and soon felt the coldness of scissors sliding under the bandage on his left temple, followed by cutting noises and the removal of the bandages, then a careful removal of some padding over his eyes.

"Now, slowly open your eyes. I have dimmed the light in the room." Sasuke complied, and saw a rather dark hospital room with a somehow crumpled looking Sakura and a Medi-Kunoichi in her 50ies standing opposite him. He blinked. "Well, I can see you fine, and my Sharingan is not active, so..." he trailed off as the doctor came closer and looked deeply into his eyes.

"Huh, everything seems back to normal. It looks likes the decision to let nature take its course was the correct one. Your Sensei will be pleased once he returns." She said while going towards the windows and slowly removing the curtains, which caused Sasukes eyes to bemoan the lack of darkness as the evening sun, damped by some clouds, flooded in, though far less than he would have expected to, after 3 days.

"However, you should take it slow for another day. No Sharingan activation and no strenuous activities, just to be sure." She added, smiled and left.

Huh, Kakashi was away? Sasuke hoped it had nothing to do with Zabuza... He was startled out of his musings when Sakura charged and hugged him fiercely.

"We were so worried about you..." Sakura almost screamed, muffling tears into his hospital gown. Still, he did not push her away immediately. Not only could he understand her reaction, but somehow Sakura pressed tightly against his chest felt ….. _nice. _So he decided that he would enjoy the spoils of being injured for a while longer.

Naturally that was the exact moment Naruto, with his oblivious crush for Sakura, entered the room, or more precisely stormed into the room, shouting "Sasuke!" He stopped as if someone had yanked him back, his face showing signs of …. sadness? Which were however quickly overridden by joy again. "Man, Sasuke, you're back up awake!" He loudly claimed while walking towards Sasuke and the blushing Sakura which had panicky stopped hugging her crush when Naruto had first announced his presence. Great, more inter-team trouble brewing. Sasuke sighed.

"Yes, I am awake, as should be rather obvious, seeing I'm talking to you." He smirked as Narutos mouth opened, as if to shoot his own "Teme!" back at him, but then realized he had not (as his other self seemed to have done all the time) called the blonde "Dobe". "And before you ask, I am more or less fine, I'm just supposed to take it slow for a day or so." He looked at Sakura, then back at Naruto. "So why don't you bring me my clothes, and we get out of the hospital?" His eyes sparkled mischievously as Sakura blushed a deep crimson and fled the room.

With their female team member out of the room, Sasukes dressing went both fast and far less …. interesting, so soon they left the room, again in blue-black and orange.

* * *

><p>As the 2 exited the main entrance, Sakura had been called away a Medi-Nin told them, the evening sun playing through some small clouds, a slight breeze in the air, Sasuke took a deep breath. Great air, and non-hospitalized which was almost as important.<p>

_He stood atop the Uchiha Hall Tower and took deep breaths of the energy-laden air. It felt wonderful._

"Sasuke? Are you alright?" Sasuke came out of this …. flashback? Just to see Naruto standing directly in front of him, frowning and looking him into the eye. "You suddenly stopped walking and stared into the air. You sure you are ready to leave yet?" The blondes voice sounded really worried. Well, at least Naruto would not hug him. He hoped.

"I just had some weird …. flashback or somesuch. Huh..." He came to a decision and started of towards the Uchiha district. Somehow he could not shake the feeling that this was important. "Hey, Sasuke! Where are you going? HEY!" Naruto yelled, but then obviously decided to follow him, and soon he was jogging next to Sasuke, a worried expression on his face. Nopt that Sasuke was paying much attention, instead he was concentrating on any details he remembered from his short episode, and could not shake the feeling he had been "dreaming" of it while he had been out...

Within 10 minutes they had reached the Uchiha district, and as Sasuke did not protest when Naruto followed him inside. He went straight for a rather wide hall-like building with a medium sized tower on top, stopping directly in front of its door.

"Now Sasuke, whats going on?" Naruto blurted out, shaking Sasuke out of some kind of contemplative stare. "I think I remembered something that … might be a reason for my different memories." He barely managed to remember that he had not yet told Naruto the exact reason. He would do it soon though, he was starting to trust this Naruto almost as much as he did "his", and if he had to stay it would not do to keep secrets from his … friends.

"I need to check something up on the tower. Could you stay out here and be ready for … anything unusual?" His voice almost sounded worried, so Naruto of course agreed with a wide smile. Helping ones friends was after all central to his Nindo. "Thanks." Sasuke felt relieved that he could depend on Naruto, if not much else as it seemed, and went to the tower platform. Upon reaching it a strange feeling started behind his eyes, something akin to the slight prickling feeling one had when a powerful storm was just about to break loose. On instinct (and ignoring the Medi-Kunoichis explicit advice) he activated his Sharingan which felt … odd. As if some kind of pressure was building right on the rims of his eyes. He looked down at Naruto and …. _Lightning bolts flashed all around, the sky alternating between dark and all too bright, shadows dancing... _..ke! Hey? Is your Sharingan supposed to … flicker?" Sasuke concentrated on the here and now again. Flicker? He held his hand in front of his eyes, and truly, there seemed to be inconsistent, whitish light emanating from his eyes. He ran towards the next window and looked into its mirroring surface. Whitish sparks, like small bolts of lightning, were dancing around his Tomoe, and from time to time a miniature bolt shot towards the center of his eye.

What. The. Hell.

He looked around almost panicky, trying to determine if his Sharingan still did what it was supposed to do. Predicting the leaves movements in the wind? Check. Predicting how Nartuo would move? Check.

"Hey, Naruto, could you throw a Kunai at me? I need to check if my eyes are working as they should..." He said with a loud but not shouting voice. "Eh, are you sure?" Naruto seemed to worry for his sanity now, but Sasuke simply nodded.

Predicting and easily evading Narutos sub-par throw? Check. Whatever was wrong (or simply _changed)_ with his eyes, it did not affect the predictive abilities. He focused on Naruto and cast the "Air of Honey" Jutsu. Seeing the blondes strangely slowed movements and his expression (one of ludicrously over-exaggerated "Huh?") the Jutsu-channeling Abilities had not suffered either. And checking the Jutsu-stealing abilities was pointless right now. So Sasuke tried his best to calm down, deactivated his Sharingan and jumped down to shake the still slowed Naruto out of it.

"Sorry, had to check if my eyes still worked as they should. And you were the only target nearby..." At that a short sting of pain as he remembered WHY noone except him and his friend were in the district shot through him.

"That felt weird. Can you teach me that Jutsu? Should be …. fun." Translation: Should be useful for Narutos pranks. Still, Sasuke smiled and nodded. Not that he expected the extremely unsubtle blonde to get much use out of it in the near future, but why not. And so the 2 left for the closest training ground.

It was good to have friends.

* * *

><p>At the same time, in Waves newly declared Hidden Village (which was for now mainly a small, secluded, rocky valley rather close to the islands center, without any buildings) Hayate Gekko had just agreed to Swords main "request" and in addition been granted the right to spar against the subject of one of these requests, namely Haku.<p>

The battle had been ... interesting, to say the least. Aside from his Kekkei Genkai, which he did not demonstrate fully, as was understandable, and immense skill with senbon the youth seemed to be of average Chunin capability, with better speed but worse strength and stamina, and so Hayate had no quarrels agreeing to Swords request of allowing him to participate in the upcoming Chunin exams. The Hokage had expected that request, and seen it as an easy way to both allow Sword more, if only imaginary so far, legitimacy as well as getting them into Konohas "debt" fast. In exchange sword had agreed to finish the bridge within the month and allow a 3-man squad of regular Konoha Chunin to establish a guard post on the Fire side.

No, it was the other request that worried him, and so he nodded his respects to Haku and Zabuza who had supervised the fight, and answered:"As you might have expected I cannot decide the other request you made. But I will deliver it to the Hokage in person as quickly as possible."

And with that he left.

Overall his "spying" mission had went pretty well. Whiile he had talked with Zabuza his men had scouted the villages. Wave seemed to like its new "Kage" quite a bit, not surprisingly seeing he had dispersed around 30% of what he and his companions had liberated from Gateau, if Hayates estimation was correct, among the bridgebuilder and other craftsmen to strengthen the economy (and literally "buy" the good will of the people) and openly slaughtered the more hated of the crime lords men, to the cheers of their former victims and their families, and provided protection.

Still, he wanted Konohas agreement to recruiting efforts in areas Fire governed but that were not directly under Konohas or any other villages control, which might prove problematic, even if he agreed that Konoha would be allowed a Veto within for every new recruit after the 3rd in the first 3 years. Still, the Hokage needed to get this message, and FAST.

And so they sped homewards, again shadowed by the mysterious ANBU.

A few kilometers back, Hohiro approached Zabuza who was looking in the direction the Konoha Nin had departed. "And? Did they agree?"

The former "Demon" and now Namikage smirked. "Yes. They fell for it. Haku will mop up every opposition he is likely to face except for the Uchiha and if our info is accurate the Kazekages youngest. We will have our Chunin and demonstrate our strength soon enough." He turned to face his former teacher. "And your project? Everything going to plan? Did you find enough ore?"

The old man smiled a tired but extremely satisfied smile. "Come and see for yourself." And with that he went towards a nearby rocky hill. Zabuza followed him, and as they reached the apex, in the rather small, around 2 kilometers to 800 meters, valley, its ground lowering itself almost 30 meters before him a building rose. It was of gleaming silver, roughly 3 meters deep, between 9 and 10 meters wide, roughly 45 meters high, and formed exactly like Kobikiri Honchos blade. Formed with Hohiros Kekkei Genkai the entirely metal Tower was near indestructible, not to mention a beautiful symbol. "Here is your Namikage Tower, The Sword, the center of our new village." The old mans voice was full of pride and warmer than Zabuza had ever heard it. "Make the best of it, boy. Do me proud."

* * *

><p>In a small bordertown north of Fire country, Kakashi and Gai approached a garishly decorated tavern. From within the rather shrill (and pretty drunk) voice of a woman could be heard. "No, I will not let you cook my pig! I will crush you!"<p>

Under that a rather small male voice saying "I said LOOK! LOOK, not Cook! Argh..!" could be heard, intersparsed with breaking wood.

Kakashi looked at Gai,w ho looked back. It seemed they had found Tsunade easy enough. Now to get her to go back to Konoha...would be _hard._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Hey, whats up? The stats show lots of you are reading this (which btw I DO appreciate! :) ) but:

Almost no reviews since last time I updated. While writing this fic in itself is fun (or I would not be doing it) I really want feedback as well. I usually don't do this, but maybe it will help and shake you a bit. ;)

I will not update until I have received at least 3 reviews for this chapter and 5 new ones in total (ergo until I have hit 37+ reviews). Maybe this will wake you up.

On Topic: In the next Chapter the Chunin Exams will start and we will hear more from Tsunade as well. And other stff I am not telling yet. So: Go review if you want to read it!


	12. News

It had been a rather frustrating 3 hours, Sasuke mused as he sat next to Naruto on a soft patch of grass, their backs leaning on a rock, near training ground 21. As he had expected teaching Naruto Genjutsu, even one as simple in its basic workings as "Air of Honey" had proved to be a ….challenging was too light a word. Maybe monumental task? Yes, that fit. While the (for non-Sharingan users necessary) handsigns were few and easy, the needed fine control and focus had proven to be outside of the blondes grasp. For now.

However, Naruto had had a surprisingly smart idea. He decided to make 20 Kage Bunshin and try it with every one of them, as they all had less chakra in desperate need of better control, and hence less chance to botch it. Yes, Naruto could be quite smart some times; he had to give him that. And he had told him so, which had promptly caused the well known "widest grin in Konoha" to appear. And so he sat in the shade, next to the original Naruto and watched the dozen or so Shadowclones still present looking as if they had to go to the toilet, and soon, while executing handsigns. He grinned. Naruto obviously had spotted his grin, and started to nag again. "Hey Sasuke, are you sure there is nothing else you can tell me? Its hard for us non-Uchiha, you know?" His face showed clear signs of rising petulance. Sighing Sasuke answered: "Naruto, I am trying to teach you a Genjutsu, which I myself almost exclusively use via my Sharingan, and we only spent 3 hours at it so far. Getting impatient this early is NOT helping you learn." He shook his head, he had almost sounded like his uncle right now. "However, how about something to eat, to get your ... energy restored?" He almost would have said "to get your mind off the difficulty", but that would not have been helpful, he wagered.

As expected Naruto agreed wholeheartedly, but for the sake of his stomach Sasuke insisted that it would NOT be Ichirakus this time, and as he was paying he won the following argument. Instead they went to Izawas, a restaurant specializing in poultry of almost every kind. Sasuke went for roasted duck with a dark sauce originating somewhere in Stone Country, while Naruto chose a huge serving of fried chicken legs. Typical, it was the largest single dish they served, and the blonde promptly picked it. Ah well, at least he seemed to be enjoying it just as much as Sasuke was the crispy, slightly spicy and very tasty duck. Although of course he was eating with the dignity befitting an Uchiha. It must have shown on his face, as Naruto scratched his head at the all too familiar air of superiority and …. yes _breeding _Sasuke was exuding. But as he, unlike his old self, did not rub it into Narutos nose, the blonde simply decided to eat a little less enthusiastic and bear it like a man. Or some-such, as he was not used to showing restraint regarding things edible.

The rest of the meal went more smoothly, with some, but overall less than expected, team talk, and so after about one hour, they left the restaurant, sated and relaxed. However, they had hardly walked more than a few minutes when Sasuke saw a new clothes shop (at least he did not remember one being here in HIS Konoha) that was obviously very well stocked with fine yet sturdy shirts in his favorite color, a dark blue tone.

"Hey Naruto, I wanna check out that store. You might wanna pick something non-orange as well while we're at it." He added with a smirk. Naruto scratched his head, and mumbled something along the lines of "can't afford other clothing", which made Sasuke wonder. There could hardly be any color less destined to be a Ninja's than bright "Kill Me Orange", so the clothes Naruto wore should be about as cheap as they could get, especially seeing the discount Ninja of the village usually received. He decided to think about it later, added a "If you cannot pay for it I'll see what I can do." After all he was the Uchiha heir, if he could not get his friend a discount he would be very surprised. He had no idea that this would be the least surprising thing that he would get to know soon... However Naruto nodded with a sheepish and somewhat sad smile, and they went to check the stock.

Sasuke quickly found what he was looking for, and his assumption was confirmed, they had very high quality stock. He went for 2 of his usual, short-sleeved, wider stile shirts, a tighter, long sleeved one and a very smooth yet sturdy looking coat-cloak mixture that was labeled to be insulating and water proof. Then he turned, to see how Naruto was doing and found him being stared at with something akin to hatred by an elderly woman who had just come out of the shop, while he tried to ignore that stare and went through some deep red stuff. Sasuke shook his head, granted Naruto obviously had no taste regarding colors, but at least red was better than orange, still that was no reason to glare at him like that. His eyes fixed on the woman, and he lifted his left brow, trusting in the copyrighted Uchiha Stare to solve the problem. Instead, this proved only helpful in showing him what the problem actually was.

The woman approached him, all the while throwing glances towards Naruto who tried his best to ignore the outside world and concentrate on a deep red Ninjasuit with greyish underarm and shin protectors that, to Sasukes trained eye, looked to be of excellent make, and spoke. "Greetings, Uchiha-san. I apologize for the disturbance this pest has wrought upon your shopping trip. Shall I tell the proprietor to vacate him?" Her voice was that of a bootlicker and it was obvious she was referring to Naruto. Sasuke held in his rising anger with the iron self-control his father had drilled him in for occasions where the clan's name and prestige were in question and only raised a questioning brow. The woman however had no qualms in diving deeper into the chasm opening before her. "We cannot allow such despicable de-, ahem... delinquents to shop at such a wonderful place, can we? He needs to be taught his place, lest he will continue to be a nuisance to us." Her hard expression clearly showed Sasuke that she meant what she said.

He was really angry now. "Naruto is a Ninja of this village who has fought against its enemies. No matter what personal grievance you have with him, you will show him the respect he deserves!" She blanched a bit, then lowered her voice. "It is to be expected from one as noble as you to adhere to the laws so honorably, but you do not have to fear to show your true feelings on this piece of trash. No one in this village will do anything against you showing him the treatment he deserves." She jumped back a step or two when, without his conscious decision, his Sharingan activated and bored into her light brown eyes.

His voice was smooth and ice cold: "Naruto is my friend. On top of that he is a brave and trustworthy Ninja, and albeit his humor leaves much to be desired, a good person. You, on the other hand, are just an oily sycophant, licking my ass while at the same time insulting my friend. Be gone. Now." Sparks danced in his eyes, and the civilian ran off almost as fast as some Genin. Narutos eyes where huge, his expression slack. "Sasuke…" Sasuke did his best to rein in his temper. The nerve! "Don't mention it, Naruto. That woman had it coming…" His voice showed signs of his anger only slowly ebbing away. Still Naruto was obviously immensely touched by Sasukes actions. Strange. Or not, seeing as he had been a prickly ass in this world, it seemed, while in his he had befriended Naruto almost immediately after the accident that had allowed him to activate his Sharingan almost a year earlier than anyone in history.

He decided that a clothes shop was not the right place to talk about it, and went towards the stand Naruto was looking over. "You sure red is what you want to go for?" Naruto hesitated for a second or two than nodded. "Well in that case, this one is very well made. And I would suggest you to pick one of these cloak-mantle mixtures as well, you never know when you will need good protection against rain and cold weather." He then proceeded inside the shop, to pay for his (and Naruto's, shaken as he seemed, the blonde obviously needed it; for multiple reasons) clothes. The shopkeeper, a bald, thin man with very pale skin and piercing green eyes simply added all up and told him the (high but reasonable, though still making a dent in his reserves) price. Sasuke noticed that his expression did not change a bit when Naruto came in. For that alone he added a little extra, a shop that treated all its customers equally as long as they paid was preferable, his uncle had taught him that. Sycophants were never useful; they tended to teach one to _expect _preferred treatment. And while at times enjoying said treatment, after all he was an Uchiha, expecting it was the way towards arrogant ignorance. Seeing Naruto's happiness only strengthened his smile, and they left together, towards the Uchiha Compound, and even though some villagers glared at Naruto, they only did so at his, and his famous friend's, back.

* * *

><p>Danzo stood, a ROOT member with a blue striped weasel mask kneeling in front of him, his eyes mostly closed. "Report!" He almost whispered.<p>

"Yes, Danzo-sama. As ordered I copied the … envoy-teams notes, which are on your desk already, but otherwise concentrated on the areas they did not cover. While they were occupied with negotiations with Zabuza Momochi, Hohiro Yamamoto and Haku were doing the actual work. The freshly erected Namikage Tower was constructed using the Tora-Yamamoto's unique Metal Technique, which makes it the sturdiest Kage-residence by far. Unless an attack is executed by at least a dozen strong Earth-users I see little use in force application." At that Danzo nodded. It seemed the new Kage was concerned about his security and had taken measures against what a small village had to fear the most: direct force. Good. He nodded his agent to continue.

"Meanwhile Haku was recruiting 2 more Ninja for the village, which he had completed before the treaty was agreed upon and the envoys left."

Danzo smirked. Smart move. After all, the treaty while allowing Wave a larger area for recruiting would also grant Konoha Veto rights on every recruit after the third each year. Recruiting everything they could find in their area _before_ that was ratified was a good move. "Tell me about these 2."

"Yes Danzo-sama. The first recruit is Enki Kudo, a 36 years old former traveling Ninja that had retreated to Wave to live in peace after a battle wound on his right leg he received in a fight against a Cloud Ninja made him too slow to be of use to his "Clan". Following our information his Affinity is Water, and while he was only a moderately powerful Chunin at best, he is known to have mastered almost a hundred Jutsu due to his travels throughout the Elemental Countries. Mostly C-Class but still this grants him impressive versatility. The other is a 17 year old Kunoichi by the name of Hikari Matsu. She is a member of the rather obscure Matsu Clan that mostly travels through the smaller countries, which possesses a low C-Class Kekkei Genkai that grants them one exceptional sense, most of the time hearing, but sight and smell are also known of. Her skill is rather low, she only made Chunin at age 16, late even for traveling Clans, and we do not know her affinity or which expression her Kekkei Genkai takes." His report finished, the masked Shinobi waited for his master's reaction.

Danzo was deep in thought. He had not expected Zabuza to be that quick with his preparations. He obviously intended to go for power as fast as possible, with himself, Hohiro and Haku, as well as planning for the future. He already had 3 bearers of Bloodline Limits in his tiny village, and showed no signs of stopping- He was obviously stocking up as much as he could even on low power Bloodlines to start a breeding program later on. And he had Hohiro, a Ninja of almost unheard age, and hence experience, as well as a very teacher-eligible, broadly trained older Ninja to train his recruits. He was clearly aiming to create a village for… _special missions_.

Obviously a Hidden Village like that, economically dependent on Fire country, small but powerful and growing stronger still, and led by someone with few qualms regarding killing and a hatred for Kiri was a lucky break for him. His smirk widened. Yes, Sword was just about exactly what he needed right now. His mind already wondered if he could send one of his Aburame there to introduce their Bloodline as well. He would help the small village to grow into a weapon that Konoha could grasp whenever needed, saving their own Ninja from the unavoidable casualties war brought and conserving their strength while still achieving his goals.

Yes, he actually started liking the Namikage already… and would initiate ... _closer relations_ soon.

* * *

><p>Naruto had evaded Sasukes questions regarding the openly hostile actions the old woman had taken, and Sasuke had decided to be a good friend and not intrude. Yet.<p>

But he would get to the bottom of this if he found the time.

Alas, time would be in short supply within the next months, as Kakashi had just, after arriving _almost on time _at their meeting place, revealed to them that the Chunin exams would be held in Konoha in 7 days. While Sasuke was happy about that, mostly, it also meant that soon a lot of foreign Genin would be here. Which was why Kakashi was lecturing them right now. "Remember, while we are in theory allied with all the villages that will send participants, the only ones we are more or less on friendly terms are the Ninja from Sunagakure. And we do not even know anything more than the most basic things about Otogakure, the second-newest Hidden Village after Sword, so: be careful, do not reveal your techniques unless it is necessary, and by the Kami, be _polite._" He looked at "The Prankster" at the last sentence, and his eye clearly said "No pranking the visitors. Period". After he was more or less sure his pupils had understood, he continued. "Now Sasuke, you have already taught Sakura and Naruto a new Jutsu each, which will help them no doubt. Not to mention some … style advice?" The last part made Sasuke smile. Naruto was looking rather fearsome in his new deep red suit, with the looted Vest and the added protectors. Truly, the only thing missing was a huge sword and he could have intimidated just about anyone who did not know him. That was of course the exact moment where Naruto grinned widely and started scratching his head, all the while totally ruining the picture of "dangerous Ninja". Ah well.

"Until the Exams start I will be training Sasuke and checking if the recent changes in his Sharingan have had any effects."

It was about time, Sasuke thought. He had expected Kakashi to get to it as soon as he was back, but obviously THIS Kakashi had had other priorities than his pupil until now. Still, he was glad someone who actually knew anything about his eyes was now looking into the whole mess.

"Now Naruto, Sakura, why don't you 2 go and reacquaint yourself with the tree-walking exercise? Sasuke and I will be joining you in an hour or so..:" With that a disappointed Sakura and an energetic Naruto went off to train.

Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "Now Sasuke, first let me tell you that your reward for capturing the Demon Brothers was cleared by the bureaucrats this morning. The sum, minus the usual 25% for Konoha, comes up to 54000 Ryu and will be deposited to your Genin account today." Sasuke was surprised, he had not expected the reward for those 2 … clowns to be that high. While he had no lack of money, the time until he would have full access to the Uchiha accounts was still years away, and he already had an idea or two on what to do with his bounty...

"Ahem." Kakashis voice shook him out of his musings about specifically tailored Battle gear and he concentrated on his sensei again. "As I was saying, we will now check if your Sharingan is working as it should. Activate it please." Sasuke did, and Kakashi stared in wonder at the small amounts of Raiton Chakra dancing around Sasuke's Tomoe. He unveiled his own Sharingan, and continued to stare long enough that Sasuke got a sick feeling in his stomach. Did Kakashi know what was wrong with his eyes? Was it something bad?

"Well, I can honestly say that I have never seen such a thing. But I think it is not yet done evolving." A stern female voice cut through their reverie, coming from his right. Sasuke, who had been so preoccupied with what Kakashi was doing that he had paid no attention to his surroundings turned to see who had spoken. Just to be greeted by the most enormous Boobs, ahem, _chest _he had ever seen right in front of his eyes, no 5 inches away, scantily clad in a greenish, rather ... _low neckline _Kimono. He quickly raised his gaze, and was stunned, even shocked, by what he saw. The mark on her forehead, this meant... he was looking at Tsunade, the legendary Sannin!

"Yes, kid, it's me. And no, staring once is nothing I will punish you for. Staring more than once though..." Her tone was extremely friendly, which made her all the scarier. Kakashi took a step back, rubbing his chest at her exclamation, and remembered how their meeting had gone...

_He and Gai had looked at each other, shrugged and sped into the tavern, to be greeted by the sight of a very drunk Tsunade on a rampage. She indiscriminately smashed everything that got between her and a rather fat, somewhat piggish looking, but surprisingly fast man with brown hair. Said man was sweating blood and frantically trying to evade, so far successfully which was really impressive, Tsunade's punches. And so she smashed tables, chairs, and the floor instead of her target._

_Back in one of the corners stood a young brunette whose expression clearly said "If I was brave enough I'd stop her. But I ain't". Her gaze went to the 2 Ninja, and her eyes widened. Kakashi had just intended to ask her who she was, and why the Slug Princess was tearing up the place, when he saw the woman was hugging a small … pig? Ah, so Tsunade liked that pet-pig, and in her drunken state she had thought the fat man, who was still if barely evading her crushing blows, had intended to cook it. Strange._

_He looked at Gai, who looked back and gave him the thumbs up. Great, his "__Eternal__ Rival" obviously wanted him to go in first. He sighed, and began to sneak in as quickly as possible._

_Without much warning splinters of wood as long as his hand flew all around him, and he suddenly faced Tsunade. "You, want to cook my Pig as well? Or are you just sneaking around to peek?" Her eyes were blazing with fury, and Kakashi gulped. Just to be hit by a sledgehammer-blow. The last thing he remembered was the cry "Pervert!" and a sensation of vertigo, then everything went black. _

The Elite Jounin straightened up, forcing his mind into the present again, and quietly thanking Gai, for whatever he had done to save him, and the Hokage for the little book which had been the only reason a cursing and stomping Tsunade had accompanied them "Home", he was sure.

Tsunade held her glowing green hands at Sasukes temples, the boy standing as still as he could, and continued. "It seems to me that there has been an overload with Raiton Chakra in 8 of the Tenketsu leading into his eyes, one that fundamentally changed them in a way I have yet to analyze. I am not yet sure what this means, but their regular functions are entirely unaffected." At Sasuke's questioning gaze she nodded. "Yes, that means your Sharingan is fully functional otherwise, and I can see no reason why you should experience any more problems until whatever it is finishes evolving." She stepped back to a more comfortable distance and looked at Kakashi. "You might actually have done me a favor by bringing me here. This "evolution" for lack of a better term is very intriguing. I think I will stay until it is finished. I will, check on him every other day, but I _expect _you to immediately come for me if something changes" With that she turned and left, and Kakashi slumped with such an expression of relief on his… well, eye, that Sasuke almost snickered.

"Well, if that wasn't lucky." He drily added. "Now, let's continue training, I not going to teach you anything new yet, as you will have to read enough stuff to get up to speed in the theory department, but I will help you fine tune whatever you already can do. Go get Naruto and Sakura, and let's get to it."

Which they did. For most of the next 2 days.

* * *

><p>A few hours later the Hokage sat in the Council Chamber after the Civil and Clan councilors had left, his pipe long bereft of fire, his head resting on his hands. He would honestly never have expected his advisers to argue in favor of the recruitment treaty with Sword, which had made the whole thing go far smoother than he had expected. However that was exactly what had him so worried. WHY did they agree? Oh, they had argued well enough, mentioning that Konoha had enough Ninja, that Sword was an ally, so better them with supervision than other villages to recruit in Fires sphere of influence. All very reasonable.<p>

He did not believe one word of it. Koharu and Homaru surely had ulterior motives, but he had no idea which ones exactly, or even if it was for one of their plans or Danzo's, whom he suspected to have ties with the 2. He sighed.

Being Hokage was a terrible burden, which he felt twice as hard now that his former pupil and intended successor (as Jiraya always would decline) was here. At least she had come, and taken a look at the Uchiha, agreeing that whatever was happening to his eyes was probably an unknown evolution of the most powerful Dojutsu still in existence. One worry lessened. Only another dozen left.

Sighing again he went back to work. For what else could he do?

* * *

><p>Early morning 2 days after the examination of his eyes, Sasuke and Naruto were walking towards the main gate, where if their guess was correct Sakura would already be waiting. Kakashi had gotten them a low C-Class mission, namely escorting some mining equipment to a site roughly half a day's journey to Konoha's south, when they saw a dark clad boy with strange, violet markings on his face gripping a small girl, and drawing back his hand, as if to punch her.<p>

Without any conscious communication, they both acted immediately…

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>OK, no Chunin exams yet. I would have found it somewhat forced to get to the first part at the end of this chapter, as the "end" fits so well, so you will have to wait for the next one. In which I will cover most of the first two Exams, and of course the ... meeting with Gaara..

Instead you got some rather important "Set Up" Information. I hope you enjoyed it and of course review!


	13. Light of a New World

Sasuke immediately activated his Sharingan and, while Naruto did what he always did, being as obvious as possible and shouting "Hey, what do you think you're doing with that girl?", went through the signs of the Sparrowhawk Jutsu. Before the boy even had had time to fully turn towards Naruto Sasuke was there, grabbing his still drawn fist with one hand while delivering a quick jab to the elbow of the arm he held the girl with. With a rather angry, and totally un-ninja "Ouch!" the boy, who Sasuke now saw wore a Sunagakure headband, let go of the girl. Sasuke grabbed her, lifted her in his arms and, before his opponent could do anything else, sprinted away placing her behind a fence close by. He turned, to see the face of the offender redden in rage and Naruto, looking quite threatening in his new attire if he was honest, advancing on their opponent, scowling. He decided it was time to say something as well, probably a well-aimed barb targeting the boys slow reaction speed or some-such, when a sudden gust of unnaturally sharp wind came towards him. He evaded it rather easily, due to his Sharingan, but he obviously had to be more cautious. It seemed as if the guy had backup as well.

Darn.

Naruto actually managed to spot the new arrival, a scowling blonde Kunoichi with a huge fan in her hands, almost as quickly as Sasuke, and promptly started to shout again. "Not enough that you threaten little girls, you are even setting ambushes for Konoha Shinobi in their own village! Bastards..."

While he could not help but agree with Naruto's indignation, he once again wished the blonde would be a little less straightforward at times. But that could not be helped now.

"Actually I was just removing 2 attackers from my brother...:" the Kunoichi drawled, lifting her fan again. "Kankuro, keep out of trouble next time, will you? While I will help you of course, I can't help but agree. Hitting little girls is rather low..." As the black clad boy grabbed for the bandaged … thing on his back he quietly answered. "Yes Temari..." And while they were doing that the Kunoichi, Temari, used the distraction and shot another gust of wind towards Naruto, who was too far away for Sasuke to intervene, that lifted the blonde up and threw him roughly 30 feet away.

He had the guts, and skill Sasuke admitted, however to produce 3 Kage Bunshin behind him while on his back and flying, landing on them and while of course dispelling them not even his new suit was dirtied. That produced some raised brows from the 2 Suna-Nin. Which were accompanied by slacked jaws when Sasuke stepped up and they saw his Sharingan. He winked at Naruto, who grinned, almost _smirked, _back and stated: "Seems you picked the wrong moment to harass that girl. I think you are going to pay for your bad behavior now..." He smirked evilly.

While Kankuro unfolded a… puppet(?) from his back and Temari once again lifted her fan, Sasuke went through the hand signs for the Hosenkà and Naruto produced a full squad of Shadow Clones, all executing the Sparrowhawk Jutsu and then rushing the offensive "visitors". Sasuke's fireballs swallowed the wind Jutsu that was thrown their way, thereby getting strengthened, and the Suna-Nin barely managed to jump back out of the explosion range, the puppet getting singed a bit, before around a dozen Naruto's pummeled them to the ground. It seemed his efforts had paid off. Naruto's clones were at least 2-3 times as effective in such a situation than they had been without the boost and additional armor. He had not expected to have to do so little, but he liked it. Seemed his team had gotten quite the competence boost.

Sasuke smirked at Naruto, who smiled back, as they walked towards the 2, to lecture them on "good behavior", when suddenly they felt some pretty strong killing intent. On a nearby tree another Ninja had appeared, this one red-haired, with dark rings under his eyes and the Kanji for "Love" on his face. He was also wearing a… jar(?) on his back. Oh, and he was looking at them as if he wanted to kill them, right here and now. Sasuke swallowed. This was obviously another type of Ninja, and aside from the palpable amount of killing intent he exuded, he felt … _wrong _somehow.

The redhead spoke with a quiet, totally emotionless, voice. "If you continue to annoy me, I will kill you." His gaze then locked on the Suna-Nin, which were each held to the ground by 4 Narutos. "Temari, Kankuro, you are too noisy. Come." And towards Sasuke: "Let them go." without any particular inflection. And with that he jumped off the tree and started to walk towards the main road. The 2 beaten Ninja suddenly looked frightened AND ashamed, while Naruto only looked flabbergasted. "What's with that guy?" He asked Sasuke, who shrugged. He had no idea, but it seemed he was the leader of the other 2, which almost made him feel sorry for them.

The last Uchiha walked up to the pinned Ninja. "Naruto will let you go now. Do not attack any villagers again, or we will have another … encounter. With a less pleasant result for you." His Sharingan, including flickering Raiton Chakra, bored into their eyes, spinning lazily, and they nodded. Still not as afraid of him as of their "leader" it seemed, but he thought that his meaning had come through. "Let them go, Naruto, I think they understand now." Which his teammate did.

Without doing much more than throwing them murderous glances, especially for some reason Naruto, Kankuro and Temari left, following their creepy "superior" along the main road. As did Sasuke's and Naruto's worried looks. Both looked at each other, sure that _this _guy would be trouble.

Sasuke and Naruto then turned to look if the girl was OK and found Sakura kneeling beside her, obviously having already comforted the youth a bit. Good thinking, Sasuke thought. It seemed his efforts towards getting Sakura to be more useful and less … annoying were going rather well. Which his expression clearly (well, for him that was) showed when he nodded at her, which she answered with a smile. "Now, Nanao-chan, why don't you run home? I am sure no one will bother you anymore." Sakura softly stated, to which the little girl nodded, her pony tail flying, and ran off.

She then looked at Sasuke with a mixture of "Wow, you are so cool" and worry. "Who was that guy? He made all my skin crawl just by being there..." Which once again proved that the pink haired brainiac was pretty perceptive. If he had had a little less self-control, Sasuke might have experienced the same.

"No idea except that he's obviously from Suna and … pretty crazy if you ask me." Naruto enthusiastically nodded at that. "However, let's get to the mission now, we don't want Kakashi-sensei to tell US we were late, do we?" At the only half teasing remark both his teammates shuddered. If that ever happened they would never hear the end of it. Being so late that Kakashi realized it, unthinkable...

And off they went, to spend an entirely uneventful day with escorting a bunch of sweating miners and their cargo.

Not everyone was that lucky...

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, further along the main road, Kankuro was rubbing his still hurting elbow. And annoying Temari by continuing to unload his anger and self-pity on her. Typical, the blond Kunoichi thought. One brother an emotionless omnicidal psychopath, the other a whiner with self-control problems. What had she done to deserve this fate?<p>

"Shut it, Kankuro. You lost your cool and tried to attack a little girl, and now you are whining about the fact that 2 Konoha-Nin acted? If I had not interceded you might have been hurt, this way we both were humiliated, and almost had to face Gaara`s displeasure. Don't you think that's enough trouble for one day?" Her tone clearly said that she meant "one week" and her expression would have scared even people who did not know her. And Kankuro had known her since he was born. _Too_ well at times. So, in a sudden expression of wisdom, he decided to shut up.

Roughly 15 meters ahead of them, Gaara was walking towards the Chuunin Exam Registration office, not bothering to listen to their squabbling. Or with anything at all, except for imagining how he would kill the 2 Konoha Shinobi once they met in the Exam…

* * *

><p>A few hours later, Haku arrived at Konohas main gate. Instead of the fake Hunter Nin outfit he wore what would come to be the uniform of Sword's Ninja pretty soon. A blue-gray Ninja Suit, with dark blue shoulder pads (in his case molded to fit as perfectly as possible, and with a smooth wave pattern) as well as a thin black pocket-vest. And of course his new headband. It still made him feel a little … strange to belong to a Village. But as long as he could serve Zabuza-sama, he was as happy as he could be. His registration went without incident, and he received directions to his room.<p>

Still another 3 hours later, almost all participants had registered. The only ones missing were the delegation from Sound and some local Genin whose sensei had been lazy with the paperwork. So Iruka closed the counter for the day, deciding that after all, tomorrow was the deadline, so there was no reason for him to work overtime already. There would be enough of that once the exams were running.

Instead he opted to go to the main gate and welcome Naruto and his team home.

Which he did some time later. And after the usual exchange of pleasantries, he had to wonder. What was the matter with Sasuke Uchiha? While he had always been his "pet prodigy" (and cause for the other teachers to envy him quite a bit), he had never much liked the aloof, darkly snobby, well yes, _emo,_ boy. But here he saw him, exchanging friendly barbs with Naruto, and actually smiling? He would inquire about that when next meeting the Hokage he decided. While he did not think someone was manipulating the last Uchiha, it always paid to be careful, and ever since Mizuki's betrayal he had had trouble trusting anyone around Naruto.

But for now, he invited his favorite pupil and his team to Ichirakus, which caused the expected reaction in the blonde, even if his new outfit made him seem at least a little bit less childish, and so, with lots of smiling and even more ramen, ended the day for Iruka and Team 7.

* * *

><p>At the same evening, in a small pension in Konohas outskirts, a well-known Suna Jounin stood looking at his (well two of them at least) "Chuunin-Exam-Infiltration-Cell" and scowled. "I am disappointed. You did not even manage to be in Konoha for an hour without incident. What exactly was it you did not understand regarding "keeping a low profile" prior to the invasion?" His voice was scathing and his "pupils" looked ashamed enough for 3. Temari shrugged.<p>

No reason in denying it, Baki was always perfectly informed anyway, so she answered openly. "Kankuro felt insulted by a little girl, and tried to teach her a lesson." Her voice was sharp and derogatory, Kankuro merely grunted. "Instead, Sasuke Uchiha, whom we identified by his Sharingan and the Uchiha crest on his shirt, and an unknown Ninja in a red suit and armor parts he called Naruto, who is also pretty strong obviously as he created multiple Bunshin to attack us, "rescued" the girl. They then attacked Kankuro and myself with fire Jutsu and around 10 Bunshin, which were all really fast due to a Jutsu I've never seen before and probably Kage Bunshin to boot as I saw no elemental effects and they were "real" enough. I tried to intercede, but was overwhelmed as well." Baki had remained impassive at all that, his mind working fast. The little Uchiha had awakened his Bloodline already, good to know. But this other Ninja... he had never even heard of this Naruto kid, and for a Genin to not only make but _use_ multiple Shadowclones... he must have a Bloodline of his own, probably one granting him a Jounin's Chakra capacity. And both were very likely already antagonistic to his pupils. This was bad...

He asked his pupils some details, and after receiving good descriptions of the 2 attackers, sent them to their beds. It was time to meet his … contact. Maybe he could tell him more about the 2…

* * *

><p>Soon the first day of the exams, the 1st of July, finally came, and all 153 participating Genin were on their way to (or already in) the class room for the first Exam. Lots of talking, in parts nervous in other parts boisterous, sounded through the staircase as Sasuke and his team walked in.<p>

He had kept training his Sharingan with Kakashi for the last few days and was now entirely sure his eyes hadn't lost any of their effectiveness. He was also quite a bit better at predicting movements, due to the wider array of information the mature Sharingan provided.

He had also kept some time to train with Naruto and Sakura, after all he was sure there would be a team part in the exam, and had been pleasantly surprised by the fact that Sakura had full 3 shots with the "Cutting Dust Barrier" and her control had increased even more. In fact he was pretty sure she had better control than everyone in their age group, including himself, and had told her so. He still could not believe that she could turn so uniformly pink. Maybe it was some sort of Bloodline? Naruto on the other hand could execute the Sparrowhawk with only 3 clones now, and it was really quite frightening what a dozen Naruto's "on speed" could do. No threat to him of course, but everyone without a Sharingan, even a Hyuga, would be hard pressed. In addition to that their teamwork had improved as well.

In short: they were ready.

They had entered the building together and just climbed the first stair, and Naruto just wanted to move up another stair, when Sasuke elbowed him. "That's a Genjutsu. There is the door to the classroom" he whispered. Naruto looked sheepishly, but followed him nonetheless. Sasuke however was wondering who on earth would fall for such a simple trick. He had not even used his Sharingan for this one. Ah well, maybe it would get better later on…

Hours later Sasuke had to admit: It had not gotten more interesting. Aside from a little incident with a guy named Kabuto (who had participated, and _failed_, in the exams before and had sprouted "information" about other participants that might or might not have been true) and a Oto-Nin crashing his glasses with some sort of sonic attack (how unsurprising) nothing happened. And the written exam… well best forget it. He was already on his way to tell them that no one could actually believe the crap about never being allowed to take the exam again (really, as if ANY village would allow other villages to permanently determine if any of their Ninja would become Chuunin eventually) when Naruto held his little speech. At times he could be really obnoxious, but as he looked around he seemed to have strengthened the resolve of some of the Genin. Who would have guessed Naruto was such a motivational speaker?

But overall Sasuke had been vastly disappointed by the exam so far, so now, standing in front of door 12 of the "Forest of Death" (really, how… non-descriptive a name…) or Training Ground 44, he was really eager to enter. Danger, battles, and his team running like a well-oiled machine… his gaze clearly said "bring it on!".

And so, after receiving a "Scroll of Heaven" Team 7 entered the Forest, Sasuke with eager anticipation, Naruto... well as Naruto always did, with a wide grin and full of energy and Sakura a few steps behind them, thinking "boys…"

Only about a minute later they were attacked by 2 absolutely huge (as in more than 1.5 meters long) bugs of some kind (where was an Aburame if you needed one?). Which caused Sakura to shriek, Naruto to produce a few Shadow Clones and swarm them and Sasuke to think that maybe, just maybe, he should not have wished for more excitement THAT strongly. However, they were no real threat to them, and some seconds later the lay dead, beaten by lots of Kage Bunshin and riddled with a few Kunai. As he collected his weapons Sasuke motioned his teammates to come closer. "Listen, obviously the rumors about this place DO have some base in facts. So we will keep to the trees and move as silently as possible from now on. We still need an Earth Scroll, but for now I'd say we simply try to evade the local fauna. And you Sakura, get a grip. Yes, there are huge ugly bugs in this forest. I assume there will be other, even bigger, animals as well. We need to be as alert as possible. Deal with it." She hung her head, slightly blushing, and mumbled something along "Yes Sasuke-kun…" Hopefully she meant it. If she was "on" Sakura could be quite the asset, he admitted to himself. "Good. Now lets get a move on." With that Sasuke made a single Kage Bunshin, which jumped off, jumped up the closest tree and started towards the widely visible tower, Naruto and Sakura behind him, and his Kage Bunshin as well as 2 of Narutos trailing 20 meters behind them. And they moved on, undisturbed, for a while.

That is, until Naruto stopped. "What's wrong?" Sasuke scanned the area, maybe Naruto had heard or smelled something (he would never assume that the mostly rather obnoxious blonde would SPOT something he missed, friendship only went _this_ far after all). Naruto's smile however was somewhat forced and heanswered while scratching his head. "Ah, I _really _need to … pee" he whispered the last part, "Right NOW." Sasuke shook his head. Typical. "Ok, but hurry. We were making good progress so far and I want it to stay that way." He jumped down to the trees roots, Sakura following him, and Naruto vanished to the other side of the colossal piece of foliage. Which was probably about 25 meters or so away, give or take. What a crazy forest...

About a minute later Naruto returned, spouting an "All done..:" towards Sasuke's and Sakura's direction, only to receive Sasuke's totally unexpected, rather vicious, knee right to the face, followed up by a sweeping, straight-legged kick that sent "Naruto", who by now looked nothing like Naruto at all, into the tree, cracking some bark and a few bones for good measure. "Sasuke?" Sakura's usually useless shout was silenced by Sasuke's glare. He returned his gaze to the downed but still barely conscious "wannabe-Infiltrator". "A Henge, really? How many levels of stupid does one need to be to try and deceive an Uchiha like me with such a basic Genjutsu?" His voice was dropping venomous sarcasm, as he slowly walked up to the still "Narutoesque" Ninja, who just dropped the Henge, revealing him to be a breather-bearing Ame-Nin with brown hair. He tried to jump Sasuke, but he easily evaded the blow, sending the attacker flying with an upwards kick to his chin while his reappearing Shadowclone jumped in to kick him to ground again. His opponent landed with a dull thud and did not move any longer. "So much for that. Sakura, he might have surprised Naruto, maybe hurt him. We need to find him. Fast." While saying that Sasuke searched their opponent for a scroll, finding none. He removed his weapons instead, and used rope he found in one of his pockets to bind him.

Sakura quickly obeyed his rather harsh command, and they began to search for their missing team mate. It did not take long, and the spotted the bound and gagged Naruto leaning in a dent in one of the huge trees. Sasuke smirked as he dispelled his clone and cut the rope. "Drmmph ffaay iff!" Naruto managed through the gag, and even though it cost him quite a lot of restraint, Sasuke managed to comply. For now.

"We should agree upon a secret code though. After all, someone might try to impersonate ME next time. And obviously you two are … less than well equipped to see through illusions..." He mentioned in passing as Naruto ripped out the gag. "You know, that's a good idea. After all, WE don't have the luxury of being gifted with the most ridiculously overpowered Kekkei Genkai in Konoha…" He murmured/nagged while stretching his arms and legs. Sasuke merely smirked. Then he leaned towards Naruto's ear and whispered something, at which Naruto turned an angry shade of red. "Sasuke-baka! That's NOT going to be our password!" Sakura "ssshhhed" but too late, Naruto's yelling had lured a lynx to them. And of course, seeing the forest they were in, said Lynx was about 6 meters long. They jumped out of the great cat's way, and went to … subdue it. Sakura mainly evaded though, as she was well aware of not being any threat in close-quarter-fighting. ESPECIALLY to a cat as large as her room. Naruto on the other hand had quite a lot of success with his clones, Sasuke mused. So he only threw 2 Kunai at the cat's eyes and let his team mate do the rest. Yes, it was noisy (well, mainly the cat was, but for once that seemed to scare other beasts OFF rather than attracting more) and slower than his method. But effective nonetheless. So when a rather dirty and sweaty Naruto "Yay`ed" after roughly 3 minutes, Sasuke just smiled. "Now, for our real password..." he whispered it into his friends ears, and since no one cried out in outrage his choice seemed to be better this time. OK, maybe "Loud Orange" HAD been a bit mean, but oh so funny... Ah well, onward.

The next hour was rather uneventful, but of course it should not stay that way...

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, somewhere else in the forest, Haku, who had been paired with 2 Konoha Ninja whose third team member had fallen for the "Wrong Answer-Never Chunin" fraud at the end of the first test, had managed to surprise another Konoha Team, whose members obviously had earned the enmity, maybe even rage, of his interim-team. It had been over in seconds, and luckily their victims had been carrying a Heaven Scroll. So now they were speeding towards the tower.<p>

Overall it had been a very easy test so far, the former Missing Nin mused. It seemed like Zabuza-sama had been right. No challenge...

* * *

><p>Sasuke was just about to order a short break, when a loud crashing sound came towards them. "Scatter!" he shouted, while focusing his Sharingan. He would not have needed it however, as even a blind and deaf Inuzuka could not have missed the incredibly HUGE snake that broke through the trees. They had expected, and seen, "large", but a snake with a diameter of at least 2 meters? No way!<p>

Luckily all of them managed... oh shit, the thing had made a quick turn and swallowed Naruto! Sasuke was just about to try to cut the huge reptiles smooth underside, when he was interrupted by his Sharingan signaling multiple missiles coming his way. He dodged the 3 Shuriken, rolling back towards a tree and bouncing off the same tree towards the new assailant. A rather creepy looking Grass Nin. Who out of some reason had a very disturbing smile on his face... And managed to evade his jump-kick-combo with obvious ease.

"My my, you are pretty fast." Great, the voice was even creepier. Sasuke flicked 2 Shuriken towards the guy while he ran up a tree. Time for some other Jutsu, huh? After all he needed to go save Naruto. No time to waste with creepy assholes. "I was looking forward to see you … work, Sasuke." Sasuke's brows rose. The guy knew him, and the way he said his name...well, let's say he had another reason to dislike the guy, not that he needed it. No matter, he was far enough away. A few well aimed Hosenkà-Firebolts later, the area where his opponent had stood was covered in smoke and raining debris. That should have taken... "Kukuku, you ARE a feisty one." That oily voice came from directly behind him! He turned, using his fastest spin-kick, which almost managed to hit his opponent, even scratching at his long hair as he ducked below Sasuke's right leg. However, this only served to widen his smile further. He jumped away, standing straight and looking at Sasuke, and as far as he was concerned he seemed entirely at ease. "Now, I would like you to show me what you are truly capable of, Sasuke-kun." He took out his scroll, an Earth Scroll, and _swallowed _it. Yuck.

"Give me all you've got. Do not hold back anything. Or. You. Will. Die." At the last words he released Killing intent. A LOT of it. Almost as much as Itachi had once used against him, or Zabuza`s display in Wave. He heard Sakura whimper somewhere behind him, and he himself was shaking visibly. But still able to act. "I think I will motivate you by killing off your second team mate, hm?" The creepy guy said in a friendly tone, and went through a few finger-signs. "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" Another Jutsu copied, Sasuke thought idly as he moved to get Sakura out of the way of the wide arc of wickedly sharp air.

"My my, you are still able to move. I am impressed, truly." His eyes bored into Sasuke's Sharingan, and widened. "A mature Sharingan no less. I only heard you had activated it, but to mature so fast…" The tone of his voice was admiring. About the way one admires a weapon one wants to buy. "Let us see what else..." At that Sasuke interrupted him. While his opponent had been talking he had executed the Sparrowhawk Jutsu, and now he was going at him with everything he knew, Taijutsu fully supported by his Sharingan. And out of his first 3 attacks, 2 even managed to hit. But instead of shocking or scaring the guy, he only kept smiling. It was almost as if he WANTED Sasuke to be as good as possible... Still, he kept the pressure up, but his efforts were overall unsuccessful. His opponent was obviously more skilled than any opponent short of Itachi or Kakashi he had ever had a Taijutsu bout with, and he somehow could not shake the feeling that he was _still_ holding back.

At that moment the huge snake came toppling through the trees nearby. Or to be precise, parts of it, and a red flood. It seemed like Naruto had done what he always did: Applied clones until the problem was solved. Or in this case burst. His opponent stared for a moment, obviously quite surprised.

Suddenly he vanished, only to reappear on a tree a few meters away. "You have passed. But I simply HAVE to see if you were holding back anything. Time to give you a reason to REALLY fight me..." And with that he started to rain Daitoppas on the area. Smashing Naruto in a tree that was soon cut to splinters, some debris smashing into Sasuke despite his best efforts, and halfway burying Sakura below another tree before Sasuke could do too much. Then he jumped down and walked towards them. "Now then, Sasuke, you will have reason to go all out."

At that Sasuke almost despaired. The sheer speed and force of the last few attacks had clearly showed him that he was facing a Jounin. He could not beat him, that much was clear. But if he did nothing, he would kill his team, no his _friends_. No way in hell he would allow that to happen. And if it cost his life to take out that creep, then so be it. His expression hardened, and he began to go through the signs for the Grand Fireball while running straight towards the guy. If he timed it just right …

And at the exact moment his opponent released a Daitoppa that would have very likely shredded Naruto and Sakura, Sasuke jumped in between and blew a Fireball as big as he could right back. The effect was immediate and impressive. The ball of fire quickly tripled in size, exploding and swallowing the Wind Jutsu whole, as well as his opponent. He was sure he saw that before the concussion wave hit him and flung him high up into a nearby tree, where he landed on a broad branch, debris raining down around him, spent and singed on more than one place. He was still alive, which he had not expected, and had saved his friends. Good. He tried to smile, but in that exact moment his eyes seemed to be set on fire. He weakly tried to reach for them to somehow ease the pain, but saw something that prevented him from doing anything more than staring.

Down where the fire had engulfed his opponent, something moved in the smoke. And stepped out of it. It was the creepy guy, only that part of his face was … missing, like a snake shedding its skin, to which the face that appeared under it fitted pretty well, and most of his clothing burned black. Yet he was alive! HOW?

"That was impressive. Perfect timing, almost perfect execution. _Very_ well done. Futile, but nonetheless..." The voice was now hissing, and the … guy? ripped off the rest of "his" face, which had to be some kind of disguise, revealing white skin and snakelike eyes and features, and ignored the prone Sasuke. Instead he turned towards the area where the unconscious Naruto and Sakura lay, and slowly went towards them, obviously intent to finish the job.

In this moment, where he should be afraid, for his friends and himself, and hurting all over his body, Sasuke suddenly felt … calm. Tranquil even. There was no pain, no fear, no anger. He stood up, something that had seemed impossible a few moments ago and was so easy right now, and _looked _at his surroundings. He saw everything in the area in perfect clarity. Every falling leaf, every crawling bug, every single beam of light, it all was a tranquil, perfectly quiet world. And he saw it all, from dozens, even hundreds of angles, every movement predicted, every detail sharp. A thin smile appeared on his lips, his face was … serene, collected and yet determined. He would show this creep what happened to those who threatened his friends.

His opponent must have had extremely sharp senses, as he suddenly turned around and looked at Sasuke. More specific at his eyes. "What is _that_?" He hissed almost perplexed. Orochimaru knew the Sharingan well. And yet he had never seen, or even heard of, a Sharingan that looked like this. Instead of the "normal" black pupil in the middle there was a 3-sided, thin star. And the Tomoe seemed to have wandered anti-clockwise, for about a third of the eyes circumference, and inwards, while trailing a knife-like appendage to their former place, looking like pearls with a part of an incomplete spiral trailing outwards from each. But even more worrying: all of it _gleamed _in purest, almost too bright, white.

He HAD to give the boy his seal right now. A new, unknown form of the Sharingan, he almost drooled in glee, he simply HAD to have it! His neck extended, as did his teeth, and he tried to bite Sasuke in the neck. Tried being the word, as Sasuke flicked 2 Shuriken away while the … head raced towards him. Exactly as he was close enough to bite the Shuriken hit Orochimaru in the legs, distracting him enough that Sasukes upward-kick managed to perfectly hit his chin, snapping his mouth shut and causing him to bite his own tongue. He began to draw his head back as quickly as he could, but Sasuke was on the move already. He followed the head, aiming another attack, this time with a Kunai, at the throat, drawing blood. And landing in front of the startled Sannin, already executing a sweeping kick. The Snake managed to evade it, just to land where Sasukes balancing arm swept a punch in his face, causing him to stumble back. What the hell, not only was this … _boy_ roughly twice as fast as he had been just a few moments before, it seemed like he saw more than even the Sharingan could. It was almost like he was omniscient! The Spiral even vaguely remembered him of the Rinnengans rings, maybe this boys eyes had developed some of its predecessors abilities, unlikely as it was... No matter the reason, he had no way to subdue him without resorting to measures that would kill the boy. And after having seen THAT, he would do _everything_ to keep him alive. With this Sharingan... He barely managed to evade Sasukes next attack, a short range Daitoppa, and decided to leave right now. He would get other chances to apply his seal. And he was looking forward to seeing what the boys true potential would be. He vanished into the ground, and Sasuke stared into nothingness, still seeing everything around him in this new, perfect clarity. He had won, it seemed. Now, time to get Naruto and Sakura...out...of...

He toppled over, for a short moment pain raced through his body, then blackness claimed him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: <strong>Sorry for the late chapter, but lots of Work+short-time illness + difficult to integrate Chapter conspired towards this end. As compensation it is the longest so far, and if I might say so myself, the most important.

The next update should come within my regular one-week-interval though, if nothing unforeseen happens. And cover the rest of the exam up to the break before the "real" 3rd exam.

I hope you enjoyed it, and if you want to hear the right song for the mood during Sasukes "First Time" at the end, listen to "Pearls of Light" from Within Temptation.

Now: Please review!


	14. Preliminaries to ?

Sasuke slowly managed to determine that he was being carried. The rhythmic hopping, combined with the pressure around his back and thighs made it pretty clear that someone was holding him in his/her arms. How... shameful.

He decided that, as a good Uchiha and on general principle, he should do something against that, and tried to move. Tried being the word. The only thing he managed was to slowly open his eyes and realize that it was _Naruto _of all people carrying him. He would probably never hear the end of that, knowing the blonde... No matter, it wasn't as if he could do anything about it. Or do anything at all. He had never before felt so… empty was the most fitting word. As if some great dam inside himself had broken and all of his strength had poured out in roughly the minute his sight had changed. Was this total chakra exhaustion? He had heard about it, but never actually experienced it; after all it was extremely dangerous. Still he had expected the exams to be exhausting, and not having the largest chakra reserves, taken precautions. Now he only had to communicate the location of his emergency restoration pills, who would give him back around 70 percent of his reserves within an hour or two, but other than soldier pills were not hazardous, to someone (namely either Naruto or Sakura, great!) who then would have to actually _feed_ them to him.

Oh joy...

Just as he once again tried to get his voice to work, he heard a rather loud thump, and shortly thereafter he was quite unceremoniously put in a sitting position against a tree trunk. Followed by Sakura's worried face appearing right in front of his, seeing his open eyes, and reddening into the color of her hair.

"Sasuke! You're awake! Are you alright? Can you move? Why were you out, and what did you do to the creepy Grass Nin?" The words almost streamed out of her, and while his mind (and hearing, obviously) worked fine, he was not able to answer even one of the questions. He had no idea what exactly he had done, but thinking back, his sight had been _incredible._ Had he actually managed to awaken the Mangekyo? Unlikely, he remembered that in recent history only 2 Uchiha had been able to do that, and not even his otherwise oh so prodigious brother Itachi had been one of them. But if, the implications were...

He was brought out of his musings by Naruto hitting him softly on the right shoulder. "Hey, are you all there?" The blondes voice sounded somewhat more sober than usual. Sasuke tried to communicate his usual cool answer by blinking. Not one of his better ideas he had to admit.

"Okay... " Naruto scratched his head, then seemed to have an idea. "OK Sasuke, one blink for yes, 2 for no, K?" Sasuke blinked once. Why did it not surprise him that Naruto would have that idea?

"Good. Now, do you know how we can get you back up?" Blink. "Yay. Uh, do you know how to do it without wasting a day or more resting?" Blink. "Hey, this is fun..." For a short time the blondes famous grin was making an appearance, but for some reason it did not stay.

Sakura chimed in now. "Sasuke, do you have an emergency pill or a chakra restoration pill anywhere on you?" Again it showed that, when she utilized her brain properly, Sakura was very smart. Sasuke blinked once and then tried to look towards his right pouch as demonstratively as possible. Which seemed to work, as Naruto grabbed said pouch, and started to rummage through it. With his usual lack of subtelty.

"Ouch, another Shuriken. That makes 12. But where is whatever pill you need to get back up?" The blonde's murmuring was, strangely, very clear to Sasuke. Maybe being unable to move made his concentration on what still worked better? Who knew. "Ah, got it." Naruto held a small, semi-translucent bag high into the air.

Sasuke blinked. Sadly that did little to confer his "Hey, stupid, I need to EAT them, not only to LOOK at them!" to his obnoxious friend. Hn.

Luckily Sakura did what she was supposed to do, namely taking the bag out of Naruto's grip, opening it and removing the three vaguely green, slightly soft pills from it. "OK Sasuke, I will now … give the pills to you." She almost said feed, but blushed and changed her wording. If he could Sasuke would have smirked. "Do you need all 3?" Double Blink. "Is one enough?" On slow blink. "Good, here we go..." and with much blushing and fidgeting Sakura opened his mouth, put one pill and some water into and closed it. Sasuke on the other hand actually managed to swallow the terribly smelly thing. Yay.

Now he would only be a totally useless weight to his team for another hour or so...

"OK, how long will this take?" Naruto inquired after about 5 Minutes. "Oh right, only yes and no, gotcha. Will it take another 5 Minutes?" Double Blink.

"Another 10 maybe?" Double Blink.

"Aw this sucks, longer than that?" Blink. The blonde bundle of energy started to sound petulant.

"Darn, this is going to take days, I know it!" Sasuke blinked involuntarily. "What, really? O fu...!"

Double Blink. "Oh, good. Hmm, maybe ... an hour?" Blink. "Damn. OK then, Sakura and I will guard you while you rest. This place should be … safe." The way Naruto said that made Sasuke notice that his whole body language was … somewhat off. More controlled, and almost … angry?

What had happened while he had been out?

Sakura knelt down beside him. Obviously (and unsurprisingly) she would be the "close guard". He assumed Naruto's clones would do the rest, but could not see any. Good, the blonde's camouflage skills seemed to be improving. He sighed inwardly, and impatiently waited for the pill to take effect.

Which it did, bit by bit, during the next hour. Slowly, starting with his shoulders, then his hands followed by his torso and legs Sasuke regained muscle control. After almost exactly a full hour he could stand up and began to stretch almost normally. Sakura of course watched him closely all the time, especially while he tested if he had suffered any damage. Strangely, aside from a large bruise on his back where he had hit the tree after his desperate gambit with the Grand Fireball, as well as a few singed parts, he felt relatively unhurt. Good.

"Thanks for getting me this far safely, I'm back on track now." He stated with a tone that mixed gratefulness and an almost audible smirk quite perfectly. Naruto (well, _a_ Naruto at least) and Sakura smiled. "Well, you saved us back there, how could we do less." "Naruto" stated while scratching his head. "By the way, how did you do that? This creepy Grass Nin was awfully strong...and fast."

"If I only knew..." Sasukes murmured, his voice had a very pensive tone. He straightened and answered with normal volume. "Only thing I know is that I was not going to let him kill you two. And suddenly my vision got ..." He caught himself. They were his friends, and he would tell them what he knew, but these were Uchiha Clan Secrets, and this forest was a battle-zone. "Let's talk about that later, Ok? Only sure thing is it knocked me out. Depleted my chakra. So for now we shouldn't count on a repeat performance." He finished stretching and stood in a relaxed pose. Then looked around.

"Hey where exactly are we? The tower there looks awfully close..." He trailed off, as a, probably THE, Naruto jumped down from a tree branch. "Well, we thought it might help to move ahead a bit while you were … out, to make your recovery safe. The battle was loud and might have attracted more enemies..." Sakura explained, but shot a strange glance towards Naruto, who, totally out of character, neither said anything nor scratched his head. So something had happened that the blonde did not want to talk about, Hn! Back to business then.

"Whatever happened, I think we should go and get us an Earth Scroll now, huh?"

At that Naruto returned to his normal behavior. "Ah well, um..." He drawled, while Sakura once again looked... worried? "We actually already have one. We, um, _met_ another Team shortly after you drove the Creep off and managed to take their scroll." Naruto produced said scroll from his pouch, and Sasuke started to be _really_ worried now. The Naruto he knew would have boasted, grinned and boasted more had he singlehandedly recovered the goal number 1 of this exam. But here he seemed almost ashamed.

Weird.

As if this whole exam had not been strange enough already, with what his Sharingan had done, not to mention strange interloping Jounin with snakelike faces…

"Ok Naruto, if you don't want to talk about it I'll respect that. But as a Team we need to be able trust each other, and you are obviously hiding something, and seem worried, so: are you alright?" Sasuke let the worry he felt color his voice, while Sakura hung her head a bit as he asked his question. Naruto on the other hand seemed to be fighting with himself. And loosing.

What a strange thought, Sasuke mused, as Naruto finally let loose. "It's just that, when you were down and Sakura-chan was hurt, and then 3 other Ninja attacked us, I... I wanted to protect you, err... us, you know what I mean. And I could not. I was simply too beat up already from being shot through and then lying under the tree the Creep cut down. So I got so _angry _with myself and the Rain Nin that attacked us..." He trailed off and looked at Sasuke, and to the Uchiha's astonishment there were unshed tears in Naruto's eyes. "Then I somehow lost it. Next thing I remember is Sakura shouting at me to "Stop Naruto, Stop it!", and when I looked around me I had somehow beaten the Rain Nin to a bloody pulp. Literally." He swallowed, a bit green around the edges. "I... I cannot talk about why that happened, not now. I promise to tell you once we are able to talk in peace. But I need to stay in control, stay calm, or it might happen again. I don't want to hurt you or Sakura-chan... Can you help me with that? You always seem so cool and in control..." His tone was pleading, anguished.

Sasuke was astonished. Not only had Naruto beaten 3 other Genin, no he had done so in some kind of berserker Rage, if Sakuras looks were any indication a pretty impressive one. He had read that some clans, mostly in Cloud and Mist, had possessed bloodlimits similar to that, but as far as he knew Naruto was not a Clan member, far less from outside Konoha or the Land of Fire. He would have to ask Sakura for details later. Even more shocking however was that his friend felt strongly enough about not "losing it" again that he had actually asked HIM for advice on how to keep ones cool.

This day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

"Of course. You're my friend Naruto, and if you need my help I'll do what I can to help you." He answered without any conscious thought. Friends were important, and if Naruto needed him THAT strongly, he would have to be a real ass not to help as best as he could.

"Thanks." Naruto was obviously fighting a huge emotional reaction. He would NOT let his red-clad teammate hug him, he decided, so Sasuke quickly reacted.

"Well as we have the scrolls now, how about we hurry and get to the tower? While on the move I can give you some tips already, if you like." While talking he moved slightly away from Naruto, not looking directly at him in an effort to prevent being tackled with a hug. Or some-such. Sakura smiled at him while he did so, a true, unblushing, genuine smile. And she looked stunning doing so, Sasuke had to admit, her eyes sparkling a deep forest pond green and... Err... back to the matter at hand. No unwanted complications now. No.

"Lets go." He said and moved ahead.

They moved on, 2 of Narutos clones ahead and on each side, Sasuke next to the original Naruto, quietly talking and Sakura one jump behind them, and followed by 2 more clones. And surprisingly, the rest of the way towards the tower, which took about 15 minutes, was entirely uneventful. No huge insects, or bears, or freaky foreign Ninja.

Nothing.

Sasuke was of course put on edge rather than being calmed by that, but after the day so far, who could blame him?

They arrived in the tower, and a huge script told them to open the scrolls now. Huh, unexpected. He was just about to tell his team to do that when Naruto exclaimed "Ok." and almost tore his scroll, the Earth scroll he had captured, open. He smirked. Seemed his friend was a bit more himself again. He quickly opened the Heaven scroll, and with a huge puff of smoke, Iruka appeared. Phew, it seemed that part was really over now. Sasuke let his team handle the particularly obvious lecture and relaxed. Physically that is, as his mind was still churning through all the worrying things he had experienced this day, from the creepy Jounin and his newly changed Sharingan to Narutos… problems. He quietly followed Sakura and Naruto towards a resting area, as it seemed they and 2 other teams were the only ones that had already reached the tower. Good, some rest was much needed...

And so Team 7 rested for a few hours, unbeknownst to them being watched not only by the Konoha Nin overseeing the exam, especially a still rather suspicious Iruka trying to find out why Sasuke was being so… well, _non-emo_, but also by a rather smug Haku...

* * *

><p>It was the evening of the same day, and most groups had already arrived, and in more or less one piece too. Anko was… pissed. How was it that not only most of the groups had arrived at all, but also on average a whole day earlier than expected? She had shouted at Ibiki for letting too many get through, and now? What was she going to do to prevent him from smirking his "Ah, poor Anko" smirk at her?<p>

On top of that, there had been some sightings of very powerful wind Jutsu, suggesting that at least some of the visitors were far better than Genin (aside from the obvious choices for such assumptions, Sands Gaara and Swords Haku came to mind) and even many Chunin. Just perfect, why had it always have to be on her watch?

Sighing inwardly but wearing a mask of frustrated anger Anko stormed into the Watchers chamber, where Iruka and another Chunin she could not remember the name of waited already.

"OK guys, we need to shrink the numbers. Of the 138 Genin that passed Ibikis test, already 60 have arrived, and it looks as if 4 more groups are close enough to manage the exam as well, even if we only count all that have arrived within one day of the first group, which would put us at full _72_. Which is, as you no doubt know, around twice the number we were expecting. We need to hold preliminaries, and for all of them, and even then we will have more Genin in the final elimination rounds than we thought possible." Her tirade was not interrupted, after all Anko was well known for both her temper and her… skills. Her smile did nothing to deter from that train of thought either, and Iruka gulped. Woe to anyone forced to endure Ankos version of the normally rather tame preliminaries.

"We will also have to prevent any rigging attempts. We cannot be suspected to do so this time, when already a suspicious number of our own Genin have made it through. Including ALL of the most recent class." Iruka added, almost against his better judgment, as he had intended to prevent Naruto to have to face Sasuke at the very least. Anko smiled at him. "Now THAT is what I want to hear. Let's devise some… mayhem then, shall we?"

Which then they did for the next hour. Unbeknownst to the poor Genin, something new was going to wait for them in the preliminary rounds...

* * *

><p>It was the morning of the next day, and all 4 groups that had seemed likely to arrive had done so. Which meant that now roughly 80 Genin were standing around the arena, waiting for Anko, who was leading the preliminaries, to tell them what new, and potentially Snakey-scary, things were waiting for them.<p>

"Listen up brats! As too many of you to have a nice, normal tournament have passed this exam, we will now be holding one on one preliminary rounds. With a twist." At that she smiled, and most Konoha Nin thought "of course". "The opponents will be shown on this screen, as well as the special modifier for their battle. These include, but are in no way limited, to environmental hazards, time limits and other nice little things to make your bouts more interesting…" She explained a bit more, while Naruto and Sakura were smiling at Sasuke. After all their common training had included "surprise" attacks by clones, so they felt prepared. Which, if they judged the banter correctly, did not apply to many of the other Genin.

Sasuke was brought out of his musings when the first battle was announced. The big screen shuffled through Ninja, and then stopped at "Haku vs. Kiba Inuzuka", time limit 2 minutes. Ouch, poor Kiba, he thought.

And his train of thought proved to be correct, as Haku thrust a few Senbon at Akamaru, and while Kiba started to rage in anger at him as well. And it was over in seconds. Sasuke however had noticed the pattern in which Haku threw his Senbon, and it was quite superior to his method, so he decided to adapt it later on. But now for some fun...

The next 4 matches were more or less boring, some Konoha and some Ame Nin, as well as one from Grass showed normal skill levels. The most interesting thing happening was the sudden eruption of multiple gouts of flame that were the environmental hazard in battle 3. But then the screen showed "Sasuke Uchiha vs. Neiji Hyuga", Close Combat, no time limit. Just his luck. Yes, he was extremely good at Taijutsu, but those damn Hyuga didn't train anything BUT Taijutsu. Damn. Still, he was a proud Uchiha, he would win.

He jumped into the arena after receiving the thumbs up from Naruto and his mind was already working on a strategy as the impeccably dressed Hyuga entered. He bowed, the correct amount regarding their respective standing, and said. "I am honored to fight the only worthy opponent in this exam." And he actually sounded as if he meant it. Well, Sasuke was a Clan heir, so he also bowed as was appropriate. Then he smirked and said: "Let's get to it then, shall we?" and activated his Sharingan. Neiji looked more than a little shocked at the sight of a mature Sharingan watching him, Tomoe spinning lazily, a small flicker of Raiton Chakra dancing every few seconds. He activated his own Doujutsu just as Sasuke had finished executing the Sparrowhawk Jutsu and came at him full speed.

The first few exchanges happened so fast that none of the present Genin (that actually _were_ Genin) could follow them, then the 2 blurring forms separated, neither having landed a hit. Sasuke had to admit, Neijis hands were almost unfairly quick. Without his Sharingan he would have been hit at least 5 times, and that was including his boosted speed. This way however, they seemed evenly matched so far. They rushed at each other again, and again, the chatter had long since silenced as the other Genin got to watch a real show. The most intent observers were one Hinata Hyuga, who now realized that she was far more behind her cousin than even she had thought, and Sakura who wished she could see more clearly what her crush was actually doing. Still, Sasuke was awesome. Who else would be able to actually match the Rookie of the (previous) Year, a prodigy from a Taijutsu specialized clan, in said area? Lee however was awestruck. Since his bout Sasuke had improved vastly. The Fires of Youth had to be burning bright in the last Uchiha.

It happened through their 4th full exchange. A slight touch of Neiji's hand reached Sasuke's upper leg and immediately paralyzed part of it, while Sasuke's kick knocked Neiji off balance. Still, he knew he was going to lose if the Hyuga could regain his balance, so Sasuke pressed on, raining combos on the Hyuga. A loud crunch as well as a burst of bluish chakra, and both went down, obviously unconscious. Anko grinned, she had liked the fight, even more so as two oh so prodigious Great Clan members lay there, knocked out. She really wanted to call it a double loss... However, since this round had no time limit, the winner would be the one to wake up first.

Crud.

Slowly Sasukes consciousness returned. Damn, he had ran directly into Neijis Juuken strike. It looked like he had lost.

Wait, why was he still lying on the sand of the arena? He slowly got into a sitting position, and with his still unresponsive right leg sitting would be the only comfortable thing to do for a while, and looked around. As he did so some cheers erupted, and he saw that Neiji still lay unconscious.

"And the winner is: Sasuke Uchiha!" Anko exclaimed loudly. He had won? Hmmm, no time limit, both knocked out... strange way to win, but seeing how handicapped he had been, he would not complain. Just as he finished that thought, Naruto landed next to him.

"Congrats Sasuke. Need help getting up?" Sasuke smirked and nodded. Say what you want about Naruto, he usually did what needed doing. And so, limping aided by Naruto, Sasuke got back up to the stands, while Med-Nin carried Neiji off.

As he arrived, the next match was displayed. "Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka, Time limit 1 Minute." A very short battle, and between Kunoichi. Sasuke smiled at Sakura encouragingly. With the increased training she should win without much fuss. Sakura jumped down, and glared at Ino, who glared back. What was their problem? Sasuke always thought they were some sort of friends... That notion was quickly disproved, as as soon as the match began, Sakura fired a cutting dust barrier at Ino, obstructing the Yamanakas sight, and then, to his immense surprise, executed the Sparrowhawk Jutsu. He had not expected her to be able to do that (or even to be willing to use a close combat enhancer) but she did it. And stormed towards the cloud of small, cutting dust at a speed that told him she was good at it. Better than Naruto. Dull punches and some painful noises were heard, and the barrier collapsed, showing a knocked out Ino lying on the ground and a somewhat battered but smiling Sakura standing over her. The whole battle had taken less than 30 seconds.

"Yay Sakura-chan. Way to go!" Naruto shouted, his grin wide and white. Sasuke smiled at Sakura. Nodding in a complimenting way. That was another sign that she was shaping up. He liked it. And if he was honest, her hair looked better that way, slightly disheveled and dirty...ahem.

Ino groaned and slowly got up, looking as poisonous as before, while Sakura walked up the stairs towards her team, smiling as happy as she could.

Before they could talk much however, the next battle was announced. "Naruto Uzomaki vs. Dosu Kinuta, Environmental Effects: Earth, Time limit 3 Minutes". Naruto grinned. Sakura wished him good luck, sounding a bit… depressed when doing so, but continued to look happy. Whoever the guy was, if Sasuke's assumptions were correct Naruto might "freak out" again, so he held himself as ready as possible with his still almost paralyzed and rather tingly leg. Still, he was somewhat looking forward to see how Naruto would do, so he thumped him on the shoulder, adding a "You can do it!" before the blonde jumped down.

Little did he, or anyone else for that matter, know that this battle would mark the end of an era...

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>Sorry for the long delay folks, I was overworked for quite a bit, on top of that managed to sprain my wrist and, caused by the disappointing lack of reviews, less than perfectly motivated.

Still, here it is, although a bit shorter than intended, enjoy the chapter (and the cliffhanger).

Also, I might add in a chapter focusing on the "original" Sasuke in "my" world soon, if you want to read it that is.

So, review and tell me what you want!


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